


How I Met My Soon-To-Be-Criminal Love Interest (Oumota Superhero Au)

by kaito_momohoe



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Awkward Flirting, Bad Pick-Up Lines, Betrayal, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Bombs, Brainwashing, Coffee Shops, Crime Fighting, Feelings Realization, Fights, Flirting, Getting Together, Injury, Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Harukawa Maki/Momota Kaito, Minor Momota Kaito/Saihara Shuichi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Portals, Psychological Torture, Robots, Romance, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Slow Burn, Stargazing, Superheroes, Superpowers, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 48,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28945026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaito_momohoe/pseuds/kaito_momohoe
Summary: Superhero Apollo, secretly being Kaito Momota, spends his days fighting crime, doing interviews and saving the city, but also working in a small coffee shop. He hates how boring his civilian life is whenever he is not in his tight hero costume and a cape, commiting heroic acts. That is, until he meets a small blogger, also a big Apollo fanboy, named Kokichi Ouma.But is everything really going to get better?------This fanfic is going to be a full version of the AU I mentioned in my other work, "My Ex-Almost-Boyfriend is Trying to Kill Me at 3 am (GONE WRONG)".
Relationships: Momota Kaito/Oma Kokichi
Comments: 50
Kudos: 156





	1. Chapter 1

Ouma yawned, tugging his bag back on his shoulder as he walked towards a caffee. It was around 6 am, and as much as he hated waking up early, he wanted a moment to relax before classes. And well, nothing better than a cup of warm coffee while he's working on his blog, right? At the moment he was writing about different superheroes, often critizing them and analysing their powers and fighting styles. He wasn't a big fan of most of them, he could even say he very much disliked the whole idea of superheroes, especially the popular ones that clearly did not care about safety of other cirizens but fame and fame only. Although, there was one person that he couldn't help but admire. Apollo, the "Luminary of the Stars". He could spend days talking about him. From the stupid things he did (and still does) and mistakes he makes while fighting to how amazing he can be, how he truly cares about people and how his secret identity is a beautiful example of humility, something most recent heroes lacked. He liked so many things about him. The interesting power Apollo possessed (using portals for fighting was certainly interesting), the design of his costume, the genesis of his name (after a lot of research he finally came to a conclusion that the word "Apollo" is not a reference to a greek god but to Apollo Program), the astronomy related jokes he made during interviews. Some people would say he was Ouma's celebrity crush, but that wasn't really it. He was...okay, maybe he was Ouma's celebrity crush, but that's not important. What was important at the moment was to get a coffee. Sadly, the Starbucks he used to go to got closed down (due to it getting destroyed during one of the "hero-villian fights", he was still really angsty about that, but at least he got some sort of ententainment) so he decided to find, well, a replacement. The replacement turned out to be a small building in the corner of the street. Simple café, with yellow-y walls and big windows allowing you to peek inside. Little bell at the door, clearly letting know if someone was going inside, small plants decorating the walls and tables, green board with caffee and cakes names written with chalk. The most basic, boring looking place Ouma could ever imagine. But at the end it was still better than nothing. He sighned, fixing his jacket and bag that kept slipping from his arm and went inside.

The bell rang as the door opened. Kokichi quickly stepped towards the counter. The place was empty, the only other guests was an old man sitting in the corner. Except for them Kokichi could only see a brown haired girl, possibly a worker, doing something in the back and...o h.

A definitely buff, large man was standing in front of him on the other side of the counter, smiling. He had magenta hair, tied in a loose pony tail, his head adored by a green cap with the café logo. He also had a matching apron with black, tight turtleneck under it. Ouma also noticed a dumb looking goatee sticking from his chin. In some really weird way, it...kinda looked good on him? But goatee aside, this man sure had muscles. Kokichi couldn't help but stare at his chest and the way the apron's fabric stretched on his massive...-

"Hello? Did you fall asleep there, kid? Is there a parent with you or-?" The guy asked, giving him another bright smile. Ouma blinked a few times, his brain processing what he just heard.

"I...I'm 23 years old." He responded, watching how the guy's face turned from happy to absolutely confused. He loved these type of reactions, but couldn't help but get a little tiny bit annoyed. Did he really looked that much like a kid? Sure, he was short, but come on! 

"H-holy shit I'm sorry you just- uh I well now that I look at you, you actually look uh, um, mature? Sorry for the comment- so what can I get for you?" Barista tried to change the topic, clearly embarrassed by his mistake. Kokichi giggled at his behaviour, making the other man blush even more. 

"Can I get one latte macchiato? Or do I need to show my ID first?" Ouma snorted and the barista groaned, hiding his face in his hands.

"Listen miss, I'm really sorry about-" The Man couldn't finish, because Ouma quickly interrupted him.

"I'm a guy."

There was a minute of silence between them, the barista's face slowly going from confused back to embarrassed. His cheeks burned red, almost matching with the bright red flower sitting in a vase on the counter.

"I'M SO SORRY FUCK PLEASE FORGIVE ME-" The guy hit his head against the counter, making Kokichi laugh harder than before. He usually was pretty grumpy in the morning, but right now all the bad feelings seemed to disappear, replaced by amusement. 

"Geez, it's okay, it's not the first time it happened. Though it really hurt, you know!" Ouma made a theatrical gasp, leaning against the counter.

The barista seemed even more stressed out now, not even able to look Ouma in the eyes. "I'm really sorry, I-"

"I was lying, idiot! I really don't care" Kokichi grinned.

"You-...okay nevermind, still, I feel pretty bad about that, sorry. How about I get you that coffee for free? As a, you know, apology?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Kokichi stayed silent for a second, thinking about what he just heard, but then smirked and look at the person before him.

"You're paying for my drink? What is it, a date? Pretty bold of you, considering I don't even know your name, Mister Idiot" Ouma joked, hiding the wallet he took out a while before back into his bag.

"I'm not an idiot! My name is Kaito Momota! Barista with a burning soul!" Kaito bumped his fists together, smiling. Kokichi rolled his eyes but smiled too. He couldn't lie, the man he just met was pretty fun. Fun to mess with, of course.

"What are you, some new superhero? Super Coffee Man?" Ouma didn't catch the slight panicked look in Momota's eyes, much to the other's luck. Kaito soon realised it was just a joke and forced a chuckle out of his throat. Again, Ouma didn't really notice, his mind clearly focused on something else (that something totally not being Momota's chest).

"C-come on, it sounds cool!" Kaito pouted, stepping away and starting to prepare Ouma's order. Kokichi, instead of just going to sit down and start working on his blog, decided to wait and watch the maybe kinda attractive barista. This whole morning was way more interesting than he thought it would be. He could even say he was enjoying himself. Just a little bit. 

"You didn't even ask for my name, you meanie!" Ouma finally broke the silence, whining while Kaito was pouring coffee into a paper cup. 

"Shit, sorry about that. What's your name then, Mister- uhh...Mister Kid!" Momota finally came up with something as a payback to the earlier "insult" he got. It might have not been too clever, but it still made Ouma giggle. 

"Kokichi Ouma, but for you it's The Supreme Leader of The World!" The smaller boy smiled even brighter, winking and Momota. Kaito grabbed a sharpie and quickly noted something on the cup, of course after putting on a lid, to make sure nothing spills. Finally, he set the coffee on the counter, right in front of his client. 

"An order for The Supreme Leader of The World is ready!" He smirked, holding back a chuckle.

Ouma grabbed a cup, looking at it. It looked pretty normal, just a most basic paper cup you can imagine, except for a messy note written with a black sharpie adored with a few small stars drawings. It took him a while to read it, considering Momota's handwritting was far from decent, but finally he managed to uncode it. 

"You’re so attractive, the gravitational disturbance is causing my galactic center to elongate".

Ouma looked at the message, than back at the barista who was staring at him with a smug face, then back at the message. 

And then he bursted out laughing.

Kaito looked at him a little confused, but soon joined in, both of them laughing together. 

"Y-you joked about a date so I thought a pick up line would be funny-" Said Kaito, trying not to wheeze again. Ouma finally calmed down a little, his laughter slowly dying down. He had to admit, he did not expect that at all. The barista wasn't as boring as he thought.

"Well, Momota-chan, you might be an idiot but at least you're a funny idiot" Kokichi took a sip of his latte macchiato, watching as Kaito frowned and yelled that he's "not an idiot!". He felt a buzz of his phone from his bag, so he reached for it, looking at the notification that poped out on the screen.

"I would love to chat more, Coffee Man, but it looks like my lectures are starting soon. Sorry to break your heart, but I guess I need to leave! Try not too loose all the braincells while I'm gone, I don't think you have many left! Bye byeee!" Ouma waved at him and turned to the door, walking out. He felt himself blush a little when Momota responded with "Have a nice day!". Of course followed by an annoyed huff at Ouma's mean comment.

When Ouma walked out, he could still hear the noises from the café. He was pretty sure he could hear some girl talking, saying something about "needing to stop giving people free stuff" and Kaito's nervous laugh. 

The coffee was definitely not good, but well, maybe he could go back there again. For no reason of course. Because a cute barista was 100% not his reason.


	2. Chapter 2

The next three weeks went suprisingly well for Ouma. He absolutely did not stop at the small café every single morning and collected all kinds of cups with terrible space related pick up lines. Totally not. Well maybe he did, but can you really blame him? How could he not go back? Almost no people inside, decent coffee, delicious cupcakes he discovered a week ago and a barista fun to mess with? What else would anyone want? 

He and Kaito started getting along pretty well. Okay, maybe getting along wasn't the best way to describe it, they often argued and threw mean comments at eachother, but usually they were followed by laughter. Kokichi didn't like to admit it, but he started to like spending time with the stupid café worker. He didn't get any free coffee again, mostly because Kaito's coworker, Maki Harukawa, wasn't happy about that. Although sometimes when he was clearly having a bad day he could find half of a cupcake next to his latte, with a rushed explanation from Kaito that "I didn't really feel like eating all of it so I guess you can take half. Because you know. Wasting food is bad". It always made his day suddenly way better. He and Kaito exchanged numbers at one point, which ended in Ouma spamming Kaito memes at 3 am (mostly Apollo related, of course). Kaito didn't text much, explaining he likes talking more than writing, but whenever Kaito was for some reason not able to be at work in the morning he sent the other boy a message apologizing and wishing a good day, of course filled with ten different emojis. 

On weekends, when Ouma didn't have to run to his collage, he also stopped at the café, spending more time talking with the barista. Sometimes they chatted over the counter, sometimes Kaito sat next to him in a table and watched as Ouma worked on his blog. He always seemed weirdly abashed whenever the small boy was making another essay about "why Apollo is definitely the best hero", but Ouma didn't pay too much attention to that. Much to the bloggers suprise, Momota knew a lot about superheroes. He often helped Ouma with writing, pointing out some mistakes or things he missed. It wasn't that weird, of course a lot of people knew about superheroes, so Momota talking about them in such way wasn't anything suspicious. Ouma liked listening to him, watching as his eyes sparkled when he described fights with a huge amount of details. Kokichi sometimes wondered how Kaito knew so much. Was he that lucky to somehow watch the fights from close? Or maybe he had friends who saw them? Whatever it was, it sure helped Ouma with his work. 

Ouma thought about all of these stuff while stepping into the café, the little bell on the door letting everyone know he arrived. Kaito immediately turned to him, smiling.

"Let me guess, one latte macchiato with extra sugar and a vanillia cupcake with rainbow sprinkles?" Momota chuckled, already reaching for a cup. 

"Awww, you know me so well! You must really like me, don't you Idiot-chan?" Ouma grinned, walking up to the counter. 

"First of all, I told you this like ten thousand times, don't call me an idiot. Second of all, you're my most regular customer, of course I know you well!" Kaito grinned, already pouring the coffee into the cup, grabbing his black sharpie. Kokichi couldn't help but giggle when Kaito stuck his tongue out a little while thinking about what he should write. Finally, he started writing, and put the cup down in front of Ouma, proud of himself. Kokichi looked at the text, easier to read than before since he already got used to Kaito's handwriting.

"Baby, you're like a white dwarf star, extremely hot but not very bright."

"Me? Not bright? I think you accidentaly described yourself, Momota-chan!" Kokichi laughed, tracing his finger around the edge od the cup while Momota prepared the cupcake for him.

"You just had to insult me a little, didn't you? You tiny rascal" The barista finished putting the colourful sprinkles on the icing and put the order on the counter. Ouma quickly snatched it and took a bite, humming happily. Kokichi tried to say something, but Momota stopped him, telling him to finish eating first, because he "didn't want Ouma spitting crumbles at him while babbling". 

When the smaller boy finally ate, he started talking to Kaito about how he swore he saw Apollo flying yesterday while he was going to his lectures. He was going to tell him right after his classes, but for some reason Momota wasn't working and didn't answer his texts. 

"You're way too excited over this, you know?" Said Momota while cleaning the tables. Ouma looked at him, tilting his head.

"How can I not be excited!? I mean, Apollo is a big idiot, but-"

"He's not an idiot!" Momota suddenly yelled, pouting. It cought Kokichi by suprise, but soon made him giggle.

"You like Apollo too? Well, I guess that makes sense, of course someone like you would like a strong space themed superhero. I would say you're even on the same level of stupidity as him but I don't wanna insult my idol~" Ouma watched as Momota groaned at his words, wiping the tables with more energy than before.

"Can we just change the topic?" He asked, fixing his short ponytail and putting the cloth he used for cleaning away.

"Actually, I got a new topic! I just got a notification! You will never guess what is happening right now!" Kokichi seemed excited as he jumped closer to Kaito, tugging on his arm.

"What is it small guy?" Barista sighned and looked at him, ruffling his hair.

"You know that superhero that is often working with Apollo? The, you know, Artemis? I don't really like her, she's suuuuper boring and stiff, but I just heard that she's getting her ass kicked by some villian right now! Look, there are photos! And they say it's even live on television! Is this some new kind of villian? Look!" Ouma almost pushed his phone into Momota's face, showing him photos. Artemis was often called Apollo's sidekick, it was even rumored that the two of them had some kind of romantic relationship. She could use her ponytails like a second pair of arms, which combined with her fighting skills and the way she could handle almost any weapon made her a really strong hero. She also hid her identity, just like Apollo. They used to work in a duo, that's why their names matched (although this time the word "Artemis" was in fact inspired by the greek god, unlike Apollo's), but at one point they slightly parted away, doing more solo work. It was still common to find them fighting together, just not as much as before. 

When Momota saw the photos, he froze. He looked panicked, his eyes widened and lips parted. Ouma didn't focus on it at first, but when he looked at his face he felt a little worried.

"Heeey, Earth to Kaito Momota, did you have a stroke or something?" He asked, waving his hand on front of his face.

"They are near the mall, right? The new one that opened recently?" Momota asked, clearly nervous. 

"Hmmm...yeah, I think so" Answered Kokichi, looking closer at the backgrounds if the photos. 

"My, uh, my friend was supposed to got here today. I'm so sorry but I really need to get there and see if she's okay. Could you please watch the café for me while I'm gone? You can close it if you want, not like you could help any customers, but please?" Momota looked at him, and Ouma quietly cursed at himself for having hard time refusing. How could he say no if the other man was looking at him like that?

"Okay, okay, I guess I can help, but I'm not promising I won't eat any of the cakes while you're gone! And make sure you take a picture of Apollo for me if you see him!" Ouma took the keys to the coffee shop from Kaito. The barista reached over the counter and grabbed a bag stuffed behind it, quickly throwing it on his shoulder and running out, the little bell going off when he left. 

Kokichi didn't think much about what was in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading chapter 2! Feel free to leave a comment and let me know if you like the story so far!


	3. Chapter 3

Changing into a tight latex suit with a cape behind dumpsters in some shady alley wasn't how Kaito imagined his afternoon to go but oh well. Momota cursed again, trying to pull the leg pieces up. He still refused to call the thigh highs (even though that's clearly how they looked like). Sayaka might have been more experienced hero than him and knew more about costume designing but were thigh highs and boob window really necessary? "The ladies are going to love it Kaito! The merch will sell better!" Yeah she was right about that but come on! Latex might be a bit practical but it was a pain in the ass to put on. He will make sure to complain about it to her once he's in the base.

Kaito did hide his identity, but only from normal citizens. And villians of course, if they knew who he was it could cause a lot of problems. The only people who knew that he was the famous Apollo were people working at Future Foundation, a big hero organization. Almost every hero worked with them, because costumes and weapons weren't the cheapest things to get and thank to the agency they got them for free. Of course it had some disadvantages, like having to take part in boring meetings and getting scolded for "making too much demage in the city" (his boss, Makoto, still wasn't happy about him accidentaly destroying that one Starbucks), but it still was a pretty good deal. Working with Future Foundation was something he personally enjoyed. He did get a but annoyed sometimes, like when Sayaka he mentioned earlier forced him to practice for his interviews or made changes in his costume without informing him, but it didn't happen often. His favourite part of working with the hero agency was definitely getting to spend time with his two best friends (he liked to call them sidekicks but they, at least one of them, didn't seem to enjoy it too much). Maki Harukawa, more known as Artemis, and Shuichi Saihara, going by the hero name M.cr (Kaito called him Microwave as a joke almost all the time. Shuichi did not think it was funny). Maki could control her hair, using them like extra arms. Arms with claws. Big sharp claws made out of hair. She was skilled in fighting and could be a really dangerous opponent. She used to be an assassin, but after Kaito cought her he somehow convinced Future Foundation to give her a second chance and let her work with them instead of sending her to jail. As for Shuichi, he was a nephew of one of the CEOs, Kyoko Kirigiri, and got kind of dragged into the business. He didn't have any superpowers, so he used a mecha for fighting. 

Kaito loved his work, loved his friends, loved saving people and loved feeling that he is doing something good.

He finally managed to put on his costume, clipping the cape to his shoulders. He couldn't lie, the costume wasn't that bad. It was a one piece turtleneck that uncovered his shoulders and part of his thighs. To that he had a long fingerless gloves covering most of his arms and long leg pieces connected with boots. And of course a cape. He had a black belt with dark circles representing his portals on his waist. A diamond shaped "boob window" as people called it, same circles as on the belt connecting his cape to his shoulders. A magenta mask covering his mouth and nose and a shield looking purple tinted glasses? Could he even call them glasses? Maybe. The main colours of his costume included magenta, purple and grey, with black details. And of course he couldn't forget the galaxy pattern adoring small parts of his cape and costume. 

He took a deep breath and jumped up, activating his powers and flying up in the air. Every time he "unblocked" his powers his hair went up into a gravity defying spiky hairstyle. He didn't mind, he thought it was pretty cool. He flew up higher, looking around for the location he needed to go to. Finally, he found the mall and rushed towards it. 

Meanwhile Artemis was having a really hard time fighting. There wasn't any villian to be seen, but a big robot currently trying to shoot her with some kind of lasers. Her crossbow get destroyed earlier, so she had no long distance weapons and she couldn't get close enough to the robot to use one of her knives. She thought she can handle the situation by herself, going to the scene without telling anyone as soon as she heard there's some trouble in the new opened mall, but that was a big mistake. Right now she was trying her best to dodge the laser bullets. She did her best to evacuate civilians from the mall, but there were still some people trapped inside and she couldn't get to them with the enemy blocking her only way to the building. What didn't help was the fact that she injured her left leg, so she was mostly using her hair to lift herself up and jump back to avoid getting killed. 

She was getting more and more tired and had a hard time running from the attacks, when suddenly someone pulled on her hair, pulling her back. She felt sudden coldness and dark surroundung her, only to suddenly appears behind one of the destroyed walls near the place she just stood in. She didn't panic, she knew exactly what happened. She looked up, glaring at the man standing in front of her.

"Are you okay Maki-Roll? I'm sorry it took me so long to get here!" Apollo apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. Maki sighned, breathing heavily.

"I told you not to call me that, unless you want to die. I couldn't track any villian, so the only thing we need to focus on is the robot. My crossbow got demaged and I couldn't get close enough to this thing to attack" She explained, making sure Momota listens to her. She didn't want him to do anything stupid again and risk him getting hurt. 

"Is there anyone still in the mall?" Asked Kaito, his head slowly leaning out of the wall, observing the robot. 

"Four people. One child. Wasn't able to get them out of there on time. They are in the back, east section of the building, the way out got blocked by the rubble when the robot destroyed the other wall" Kaito nodded at her words, trying to come up with a plan.

"I think I have an idea. How is your leg?" He asked, getting on his knees close to her.

"It's slightly injured, nothing serious. I can still fight" She tried to stood up, slightly hissing in pain.

"Of course you can, you would fight even while bleeding out with your arm cut off! Which is not good, you shouldn't do that, please don't do that. But, uh, as I said, I might have a plan" Kaito quietly explained it to her, Maki nodding and staying silent. Finally, they both got into the right positions and the plan begun.

Kaito jumped out, right in front of the robot, grinning behind his mask.

"Here I am! Come on you big blender!" He grabbed a rock from the ground and threw it at the machine. Immediately it turned his way and using the spider looking legs ran to at him. Kaito flew up, dodging all the laser bullets in the air, using his portals to move quicker when he needed to. Meanwhile Artemis quietly sneaked into the mall, heading towards the trapped people. The robot was too focused on trying to shoot Apollo to notice. Kaito tried his best to get a closer look at his enemy, searching for any weak points. He noticed a hatch on the top. There were two options. Either someone was inside, controlling it, or that's where the engine was. Before Momota could do anything, he needed to know which one of them is correct. He was strictly against killing villians and didn't want to accidentaly injure them too much. He grabbed one of the smaller circles, throwing them near the robot. It soon exploded, not enough to hurt the machine, but enough to distract it. The smoke clearly confused it, making it unable to see what's going on. Kaito quickly created one portal in front of himself and one above the robot, flying into it. He landed on top of his opponent, tugging on the hatch with all his strength. It finally gave away and opened, letting Momota look inside. As he though, there was the engine. He grabbed one of the bigger circles from his belt, throwing it inside and closing the hatch before jumping back on the ground.

The robot didn't have time to react before something inside of it exploded, sending the parts of it flying into the air. 

People slowly gathered closer, since the danger was gone, and started cheering. Apollo wiped the sweat from his forehead, finally relaxing his muscles. Soon Maki joined him, holding a small girl in her arms, handing her to her panicked mother. Kaito moved his hand up, wanting to get a high five from Artemis, but she just huffed at him.

"Next time get here faster" She said, but Kaito knew she was actually proud of him. After answering questions to some of the reporters, he finally walked away, too tired to fly. He wondered if Ouma is doing okay. He felt pretty bad for leaving him alone and lying but he needed to help Maki. He probably wonders what was happening out there, maybe Kaito could lie he was watching the fight and describe it to himm That would probably make him happy. Every time Kaito talked about superhero related stuff to him Kokichi seemed so excited that it was almost cute. Wait, cute? Did he call Ouma cute? No, he's not cute, his excitement is. That's a difference. Its not important.

All he had to do right now is to change back into his normal clothes, fix his hair and clean his face and just get back to the café. Easy, although...

...where did he leave his clothes?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is interested in seeing Kaito's hero costume, please check @riolu.kakyoku on Instagram, they posted an amazing drawing with Apollo's design!


	4. Chapter 4

"Momota-chaaaaan!" Ouma yelled, throwing himself at Kaito as soon as he stepped back into the café. The taller man wheezed a little because of Kokichi's weight suddenly on him.

He couldn't find his clothes anywhere, so he had to drag himself right into Future Foundation's office and grab spare clothes from there. He could just go to his apartment and change there but he didn't want to risk anyone accidentaly seeing him. He also helped Maki get into their nurse office, making sure her leg was okay. Some of the workers congratulated him on another well done mission, but he didn't care much. His mind at that moment was focused Ouma. He really felt bad for leaving him alone, so he promised himself he will get back to him as soon as he can. 

"Sorry it took so long. I hope you didn't break anything while I was gone!" Kaito snickered, ruffling Ouma's hair. The smaller boy pouted, sticking his tongue out.

"My dear Momota-chan doesn't trust me?? Pain. I am in pain my heart broke I am slowly dying from sadness!" Kaito rolled his eyes, watching how Ouma gasped and pretended to groan from pain.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! You absolute drama queen" Momota huffed and Ouma giggled, sitting up on the counter. Kaito told him many times not to do that, but he never really listened to him. It wasn't because he didn't care about what Momota said, no, he cares about it a lot, it was just funny to annoy him. He liked watching the other's reactions and he felt warm at the thought that even after bothering him so much Kaito still likes him and gives him the same kind smile. No one ever did that before. People usually got tired of Ouma pretty fast and avoided him, but Kaito was nothing like them. Kaito was kind to him and laughed at his jokes and actually cared and-

"Are you okay? Your face got red" Momota stepped closer to the blogger, trying to put his head on his forehead to check his temperature.

"I'm okay, Idiot-chan! Get your sweaty hands away from my pure face!" Kokichi pushed Kaito's hand away, making fake gagging noises. The man just sighned and chuckled, already used to this type of reactions. "By the way, how was that friend of your's?"

"Uh? Friend...? OH, right, friend, haha, my memory is really bad sometimes!" Kaito laughed nervously, inside of his brain screaming and panicking. How could he forget of the excuse he used!? What if Ouma will get suspicious!? 

"Well, how was she?" Kokichi decided not to bring up how weird Kaito's answer felt. Momota wouldn't lie to him, right? What if he just needed to get away from him because of how annoying Ouma was? No, he wouldn't do that, he was too sweet for that, right?

"Um, well, she was fine" Kaito gave him a short answer. He didn't want to speak about it too much, scared he will slip up again and mess up. It's not like he didn't trust Kokichi...okay, maybe he didn't trust him a little, he was a liar, but he didn't hide his identity from him for his own safety. He mostly hid it for Ouma's safety. He couldn't let the other boy get hurt because of him. He couldn't let anyone get hurt because of him. It was hard to keep everything a secret, but there was nothing he could do about that. He had to suck it up and bare with it just like he did before and everything was going to be fine. 

"Did you get any Apollo pics for me!? I found some on Twitter but they are all blurry and I can't even tell what's happening! Do you know what's this big metal thingie? Tell me everything you saw!" Kokichi swung his legs in the air, excited. His eyes almost seemed to sparkle, a big grin was glued on his face and his cheeks were slightly flushed. The barista could never say no to that face, he just had to feed Ouma's interest and tell him something about the fight. It wasn't his fault he looked adorable like that! 

"Well, from what I saw, there was this big robot right? And M- Artemis fought with him but she got injured. And just when she was about to get hit by that thing, boom! Apollo arrived and dragged her into his portal! A great entrance for a great hero!" Ouma listened to Kaito carefully, focusing on every word. "Then Apollo distracted the robot and used one of his bombs to blind it, and again! Boom! Boom! Pew! Poof! The robot explodes into tiny pieces! He stands on the ground, his cape flowing because of the air, he looked absolutely cool, not that he's not cool usually, he's always cool, he is just looking extra cool at that moment, you know? And like that, he saves the day once again!" 

Ouma giggled when Kaito was throwing his arms around, gesticulating, and when he was trying his best to recreate all the noises. It was one of the reasons he secretly liked listening to Momota. He always looked so fun (not cute, that's totally not what Ouma wanted to say) and it made his stories even better. 

"Waaaaah, you're so lucky you got to see that! I wanna see Apollo too! That's not a lie, you know!" Kokichi pouted, again. 

"I'm sure you're going to meet him one day, stay optimistic!" An idea flashed through Momota's mind. He wasn't really supposed to do that, but he could bend the rules a little bit and get close to Ouma next time he is on the patrol. Just close enough for the boy to see him and get excited. Just enough to make his day slightly better.

"Did you know I found Apollo x Reader smut while you were gone? People are reaaaally getting creative!" Kokichi snickered, typing something into his phone.

"Uh, what is the whole....smut thing?" Kaito asked, confused. Ouma's eyes widened, soon followed by laughter.

"You don't know!? Momota-chan is so innocent!" Kokichi wheezed, almost falling from the counter. 

"I'm no innocent, I just don't know what that is!" Said Kaito, frustrated. 

"It's a porn story. Like, you know, with characters doing the do. Sexing" Kokichi explained, too focused back on his phone to continue laughing. 

"You can't say sexing, that's now a word you dumbass, and- WAIT, IT'S ABOUT APOLLO!?" Momota's whole face went red from shame. Someone wrote THAT about him!? Was that even legal!? He had to make sure to talk to someone in the Future Foundation about that. Or not, that would be too embarrassing. 

"Uuuu, do you want to read it? I'm just about to start, I heard there's some reaaaally spicy scenes here. And isn't getting railed by Apollo jus-" Ouma couldn't finish before Kaito grabbed his arm, making him yelp. He was trying to take the boy's phone, his cheeks burning. He couldn't let Ouma read that! Kokichi struggled, trying his best to not let go of his phone, yelling and complaining about the other man. Momota accidentaly pushed him down, making Ouma lay on the counter. The blogger moved his arm behind his head, trying to get his phone out of Kaito's reach, which caused the other to get closer, right between Kokichi's leg, leaning just a few inches above him, their faces getting really close-

"Uh, did I walked in on something or...?" A female voice made them both snap, Momota quickly jumping back and Ouma falling off the counter. A blue haired girl in glasses stood not too far away from the door, staring at both of them.

"S-sorry, uh, it was nothing! How can I help you?" Kaito fixed his apron, smiling at her. He could hear Kokichi huff from below. Was he still on the floor after the fall? Probably.

"Oh, I just wanted to order one cappuccino, if that's not a problem" She answered. Kaito nodded and got into his spot behind the counter, starting to prepare the coffee. Ouma finally got up from the floor, looking at the girl. 

"Hmmm, I think I know you...we go to college classes together, don't we?" Kokichi said, looking at the girl. She seemed a little suprised, but smiled.

"Yes, we do! I'm Tsumugi Shirogane, you're Ouma, right? I didn't expect you to remember such a plain person as me!" She giggled, fixing her glasses. 

"You sit right in front of me most of the time, it's hard not to remember you!" Exclaimed the short man. Kaito finished preparing the order, pouring the coffee into a cup drawing a small star with a note "have a good day" next to it.

"Here's your cappuccino! That'll be 400.54¥" Momota handed the cup to Tsumugi, also taking the money from her. 

"Thank you! Also...have we met before?"

Kaito went still.

There was something about her tone and the way the look in her eyes suddenly changed. Momota felt uneasy, like something was really off. He couldn't tell why exactly, but that was definitely not a normal question. 

"No, I don't think so" He answered, gulping. She only hummed in response, turning on her heel and leaving, if course not before saying goodbye to both of them.

Ouma blinked, confused by what just happened.

"Hey, big guy?" Kokichi turned go him, tilting his head.

"What's up?" Kaito's attention went back to Ouma, forgetting about the weird situation from a minute ago.

"You didn't write any stupid pick up line on her cup. Why is that, hmmm? Do you think she was ugly? Not your type? O, maybe you finally ran out of jokes! I knew this moment will finally come!" Ouma grabbed a chair and pulled it near the counter, sitting down and waiting for an answer.

"No, of course not, my space jokes library is endless! I just don't do that for other customers. I only write them for you" He said casually, not realising how it sounded. Ouma opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He looked shocked and spaced out, making Kaito worry.

"For...me? Me only?" Kokichi finally said something, sounding unsure and quiet, almost like he didn't want Momota to hear it.

"Well, yeah. Only for you" Kaito still wasn't sure why Ouma reacted like that. Did he say something wrong? 

"Are you flirting with me or something?" Ouma tried to make it sound like he's joking, but his heart right now was racing and beating like crazy. 

"What?" Momota stood dumbfolded. He thought of the pick up lines as a pun, but now that he thinks about it, it did look like he was trying to flirt with the boy. Was he flirting with him? If it was just a joke, why did he always care so much about making sure that Ouma would like them or find them fun? If he was just joking, why did he always feel a little bit nervous while writing them? Did he...did he not joke? Was he actually flirting with him this whole time?

"I-I think we ran out of ice, I'm gonna go grab some from the back!" He yelled, running away. Ouma looked as he disappeared in the storage room. 

What just happened?


	5. Chapter 5

Kaito dodged another mechanic arm, using a portal to get on the other side of his enemy. He was doing a simple patrol, just flying around the city and checking if everything is alright. He got a little distracted while watching Ouma take a walk (he just had to make sure he got to his destination safe, no other reason), but as soon as he heard screams from not too far away he snapped and got there as fast as he could. A ball shaped robot with something similiar to mouse ears and tail and a few creepy looking spider legs was attacking civilians, destroying everything around it. It was similiar to the other robot Kaito fought some time ago, except this time it was way bigger and had two big eyes on the front. Kaito also assumed there was someone inside, considering the laughter coming from inside if the machine. That made his job way harder than before, because he didn't want to hurt the person inside. What also didn't make his work easier was the fact that he got way too confident, thinking it's going to be as easy as the last time. He didn't take in consideration that he can't really use bombs, since he's in the middle of the city, and that this robot is way faster than the other one. He sadly realised that too late after the tail grabbed him and tossed him straight into a nearby dumpster.

It was already going terribly.

He crawled himself out of the dumpster, shuddering when his hand met something definitely wet and squishy. He did NOT want to see what that was. 

"Um, Apollo? You okay there?" Kaito hear loud footsteps and suddenly a dark blue haired boy in a mecha appeared next to him, with a worried expression on his face.

"i'm okay Shuichi, just a little...trashy" He groaned, taking off a piece of banana's skin out of his hair. 

Artemis couldn't help him this time, busy taking out smaller robots that appeared in other parts of the city. Pretty much everyone except for Kaito and Shuichi were busy, leaving the two of them alone with the giant mouse like machine. It wasn't like Shuichi wasn't helping, he was doing more than enough, but he was more trained im rescuing than fighting, which could sometimes be a little problematic. Saihara was really trying his best and Momota didn't want to pressure him, assuring him before the fight started that he can handle the enemy himself. The boy, unlike Kaito and Maki, did not hide his identity. It wasn't really his choice, just like becoming a hero. He was trained for this job since he was a kid, mostly due to the fact his aunt and uncle were one of the top heroes. Unlike them, he never got any special powers, causing him to have to use a mecha to be even near the same level as his coworkers. He was more of a market product than an actuall member of Future Foundation. As long as his merch sold well and he took part in some crappy interviews and advertisments, no one seemed to mind him. Momota hated that and decided to take Shuichi under his wing, trying to somehow convince him that being a hero isn't that bad. He trained with him, often fought by his side, stood up to him whenever he needed to. Over the time they became a really close friends and Apollo could not imagine his life without the other man by his side.

"Please let me know if you need help, okay? I still need to get more people out of here" Explained M.cr, turning his mecha towards the main street. Kaito often made fun of it, as a joke of course, because of it's design. It wasn't that big, he was pretty sure he could almost reach the top of he jumped up. What was funny were the metal cat ears slapped on top of the machine, mostly used for an aesthetic effect to make the merch sell better. It was just like Shuichi's costume, which he was also required to wear to seem more likeable to the public. And yes, that also included car ears, this time attached to the headphones he wore. Momota knew that Shuichi disliked that a lot, bu he himself thought it was pretty...amusing, to say at least. 

"Sure, go and save them Microwave!" Apollo laughed, ignoring Shuichi muttering how it's "not funny". 

Momota finally focused back on his job. He couldn't use bombs, as he said earlier, so his only way of fighting were either portals or his own fists. Of course, punching a robot would probably not do much, so that left only the portals. He could technically open them under the robot's legs and close them quickly. That could, if it was done well, cut off the metal limbs. But he could only make two portals at the same time and it for them to close quickly enough to actually damage the machine's legs he needed to get closer and use a lot of his energy. Which meant no flying for a while. And that left him in more vurnerable position. If he stopped using his power for a while he could save some energy up and he definitely needed that, so for now he decided to quit attacking and instead try to distract the robot. 

Meanwhile, Ouma was hiding behind one of the building, observing what was going on. He was close to the city center when the attack started and instead if running away he decided to get closer. Was it stupid? Probably. Was it a good material for his blog? Absolutely. He was currently watching Apollo trying to get the robot away from the buildings, dodging every hit from the enemy's tail. Kokichi was always impressed by him, especially now. He knew that the whole superhero business was unfair, full of lies, exploiting people and pretending to care about the public, but Apollo was different. Even now, when he clearly had no way to fight, he didn't run away like others would. He stayed, trying his best to protect others, risking his own safety. Ouma always wished he could be like that, he wanted people to look up to him and see him as someone powerful. Being some sort of important figure, like a leader of some sort, was his biggest dream. But the reality was harsh and he knew it would never come true. Because life wasn't fair. 

"Ouma? What are you doing here?" A similiar voice came from behind. Kokichi turned around, a little startled, but soon sighned in relief.

"Momota-chan, it's not nice to sneak up on someone like that!" He huffed, making sure to not be too loud. There was still a villian out there so it was better to be careful. Who knows, maybe there was more of them around? 

"Sorry for that, hah. You shouldn't be out here though. M.cr is getting people on top of that building so the rescue helicopter can get them from there" Kaito explained, pointing at a extremely tall building near them. Kokichi felt something was a little off, but maybe that was just the slight anxiety caused by being in a middle of a fight. He shouldn't feel bad and unsafe with Kaito, it's not like he was going to hurt him! He always trusted his brain, not some stupid gut feeling. There was no way for him to freak out because of Kaito. Of course he sounded a little off, he was probably scared!

"Lets go then, Idiot-chan!" Kokichi started walking, still making sure to stay pretty quiet. He got a little confused when he saw Kaito still not moving.

"Uhh, you know you have to move your legs to walk, right?" Ouma tilted his head, waiting for Momota to say something.

"I need to do something first, don't wait for me" Said Kaito, smiling. It wasn't his usual smile, but Ouma convinced himself it's probably because he was nervous.

"Just make sure to stay safe, okay big guy? Can't get some of that good coffee from a corpse" Ouma laughed, thinking he might lighten the mood up a little with a joke, but he got no answer. Kaito just went on the opposite direction, leaving him alone. He felt uneasy again, but decided to ignore it and do what Momota told him to do.

Meanwhile Apollo was hanging upside down, the robo-mouses tail wrapped around his leg. He struggled, trying to set himself free, but nothing worked. Even if he made a portal he couldn't go through it with the machine holding him, so he was stuck. And Shuichi was nowhere to be found, probably busy evacuating people. 

"Haha, look what we cought there!" A female voiced yelled from the inside of the mouse, cackling. 

"You're not going to get away with this!" Momota tried to kick the robot, yelping in pain right after he successively did. 

The villian was about to say something, but a ping noise stopped her. Kaito could hear her whisper something about "part two", right before being dropped onto the ground. 

"It was fun to play with you, big dick, but I'm here to get the job done! Be thankful I didn't throw your ass into that dumpster again!" She laughed and moved her robot. It started walking, stopping in front of a huge skyscraper. It was definitely one of the biggest building in the city. The mouse-bot beeped, it's legs slowly retracking back into it's body, only for a new part to pop out. As soon as it happened, the robot started rushing up the wall odf the building, climbing on it. Whatever the criminal was planning, Kaito had to stop them. 

He got up with a groan and flew up, trying to get on the top before the robot does. He did, thanks to his portals, but soon enough the machine was going to get there too. He stood on the roof, tensing up his muscles, ready to attack any second.

A small noise from somewhere near him distracted him.

He quickly turned to the source of it, his heart stopping, mind freezing and eyes widening. In front of him stood no one other than Ouma Kokichi himself, clearly confused and shocked. 

"What are you doing here!?" Apollo yelled, panicked. Before the other boy could answer, the floor underneath them shook. The robot got there.

Kaito didn't hesistate to attack, trying to find some weak spot he could kick or punch. He had to focus and keep Ouma safe. He couldn't let anything happen to him.

The machine swung it's tail, trying to hit him. He used his portal as a shield, the tail disappearing into a black hole and apprearing behind the main body. The movement caused the robot to hit itself, stumbling and almost falling on Kaito, only to get up again not even a second later. Momota tried to close the portal soon enought to cut the tail off, but he wasn't fast enough for that. The robot striked again. This time Kaito made a portal under himself, jumping and diving in, appearing right next to the mouse's tail. He grabbed it and tried to use all his strength to move it, so that he can use it to attack the main part of the robot again. It worked and Apollo could hear cursing coming from the inside. The robot stopped moving. 

Kaito let out a long sign, relieved it was over. He immediately turned to Ouma, making sure the other one is okay. He was standing as far away from them as he could, not too far away from the edge of the building. He was safe and that made Momota feel a little better.

Well, he WAS safe. Not anymore.

The robot suddenly got up again, it's tail swinging from left to right before striking. Kaito dodged the hit, but what he failed to do is notice where he was standing. The tail that failed to hurt him decided to attack something behind him instead. Or more like someone. Kaito's head snapped back at the boy still located on top of the building with them, but it was too late.

"KOKICHI!" Apollo screamed.

The tail hit Ouma's stomach, the force throwing his small body back. Before he even had time to react, Kokichi, with a terrified expression on his face, fell down from the building. 

Kaito completely forgot about the robot, jumping down instead of fighting. He used up most of his power, which meant he couldn't really make a portal right now. All he could do was fly as fast as he can and hope he can catch the boy in time. He promised he wouldn't let Kokichi get hurt and he broke that promise. He promised to keep him safe and he couldn't. He had to catch him, he wouldn't allow himself to lose the boy.

Ouma was falling fast. He couldn't see anything, the world around him blurred into one imagine. He couldn't tell if it was because he was falling so quickly or if he was crying. He was confused, scared, and he hated feeling like this. He decided to close his eyes, accepting that he was probably about to die. He knew he will hit the ground soon and that there was no way to survive it. He wished he could just see a specific person one last time before dying. Magenta hair, strong big arms, the aura that made him feel so safe and...loved? Is that what it was? If his life was about to end, he might as well just admit it finally.

He was in love with-

Suddenly something wrapped around him, pulling him up. He was not falling anymore, everything stopped. Did he die? If this was death, it felt nice. It felt warm, like someone was hugging him. He opened his eyes, his gaze still a little blurry. He could see a lot of magenta and....wait a second.

Kokichi's eyes focused and when he finally realised what was going on he couldn't force himself to make any sound. Apollo, the one and only Apollo, was holding him tighty, still in the air. Ouma could feel the hero's body tremble, he could hear the fast breathing and how hard his heart was beating. Before he knew it, he was being put down on the ground, but the superhero was still tightly holding him.

"K-kokichi, are you okay!? Are you hurt!? What were you doing there, I-" Apollo was mumbling, holding Ouma's cheeks and turning his head in different directions, checking is he was alright.

"How do you...know my name?" Ouma wasn't sure what was going on. How did Apollo know who he was? Why was he so worried about him? He should be treated just like any other civilians, unless...

Magenta hair. The voice. The space puns. The disappearing and not answering phone. The weird embarrassment whenever he was talking about Apollo to him. The amount of stuff he knew. The way his body was built. He fact that he knew his name and acted like this. 

No fucking way.

"K-kaito?" Both Kokichi and Kaito looked shocked, staring at eachother. Momota gulped, laughing nervously and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Um...suprise?" Kaito smiled lightly, pulling the mask covering half of his face down. Ouma stood still, overwhelemed by the amount of things that just happened. 

"You were Apollo the...the whole time?" He asked, looking up at him.

"Well, yes. I didn't really...I didn't really want to tell you, because I promised to keep you safe and if you knew you could be in danger, but I guess I already fucked that up" He chuckled, but Ouma could tell he was clearly upset. He stepped closer to Kaito and wrapped his hands around him, burrying his face in the other's chest.

"I will do better next time. I won't let you get hurt. Never." Said Momota, slowly letting himself relax. He put his hand on top of Ouma's head, almost like he was petting him. 

"You really are a big idiot" Kokichi giggled, pressing himself even closer. 

"But I'm your big idiot, right?" They both laughed, not letting neither of them let go of eachother. While Kaito was gone Shuichi managed to take down the robot, but sadly the villian escaped before he could capture her. But none of this was important to Momota right now. All he cared about was the boy in his arms. He saved him, he shouldn't be sad, but he still had a hard time stopping himself from crying. He's going to protect him better than before, no matter what. 

Ouma could also say that nothing other than Kaito mattered right now, except there was one thing that was still bothering him. If Kaito was Apollo, fought the whole time and didn't know Ouma was on the building, then...who was he talking to earlier?


	6. Chapter 6

When Kaito stepped into Future Foundation's office, he was met with a solid scolding. He expected that, considering how his last mission didn't went too well. He not only left the big robot in the middle of the city and forgot about it, he also let the criminal escape. He was ready to hear all kinds of angry comments, but he was suprised when one of the sentences thrown at him was "Why didn't you call for help!?". He explained how Maki called him and said they are all busy with smaller robots, the ones like those few weeks ago. Makoto was clearly confused, telling him that there were no robots and that they were planning to contact Kaito but he called first, telling them everything is under control. Momota could swear he didn't make any call, which made him worry. Did someone trick them all? But why? What was the reason behind it? Naegi promised him they will try to track down the number and see who was responsible for that, but Kaito still felt a little bit anxious. Not because he was worried about himself, but because if someone was trying to put Future Foundation in danger, people he cares about might not be safe. That includes Ouma.

He and Ouma haven't really talked a lot recently. Things became a little...awkward. Kokichi was still visiting the café, but not as often as before. They also didn't really communicate much, just made small talks about the weather or other unimportant stuff. Momota had no idea what he did wrong to cause this. Was Ouma not happy with him being Apollo? He probably imagined someone better than Kaito and got disappointed. But he couldn't just leave him alone! He had to discover why Ouma was acting that way!

And that's why, in the middle of the night, he was knocking to get into Ouma's apartment. It wouldn't be that weird, if you didn't count the fact it was middle of the night, but of course Kaito couldn't just knock on the door like a normal person. No, he was knocking on the window while in his hero costume. Ouma was living in the 5th floor.

The window suddenly opened, a sleepy, confused boy with messy hair looking at Kaito. And screaming.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" He fell in the floor, staring at Kaito with his eyes widened.

"Oh, sorry for not letting you know I'm comming over! I was just, you know, flying around, thinking that I could maybe visit you because I was bored, just you know, normal stuff!" Kaito smiled sliding through the window and closing it, now standing inside of Ouma's bedroom.

"I- I never gave you my adress" He muttered, still on the floor.

"Ohhhh, right, I kinda just borrowed it from the files in Future Foundation's office" Said Momota like it was the most casual thing ever. 

"They have my files!?" Ouma looked shocked.

"They kinda have everyone's files, don't stress too much about it" Momota smiled again, looking around and- oh.

Kokichi's room was NOT what he was expecting. He barely could see what colour the walls were because of the amount of posters sticked to them. He also had a couple shelves full of figures, cups, plushies and many different things. Now the reason why Kaito was a little bit, well, dumbfolded, was because they were all Apollo-related.

All of them.

Posters on a wall? All Apollo themed. Apollo in his hero suit, Apollo in his old hero suit, Apollo in his winter hero suit, Apollo- is that supposed to be similiar to those weird half naked firefighters calendars? Oh god. Figures? All Apollo in different outfits, some of which he didn't even recognize. Why did one if them have car ears? He doesn't remember having cat ears. Plushies? Chibi, cute versions of Apollo. Actually, they were kind of nice, maybe he could buy one. Is buying a plushie of yourself weird? Maybe a little. Back to the topic. Blanket? Apollo. Pillows? Apollo. A big body pillow lying on the bed that he did not want to see from the other side? Apollo. Stickers on the laptop? Apollo. Lamp? Apollo. Carpet? Apollo. Weird mouse pad with wrist pillows things that were supposed to look like boobs? Sadly Apollo. He had to make sure to somehow burn that. Was that ripped part of his cape in a glass frame? Holy shit.

"That's a...nice room you have there..." Kaito mumbled, his cheeks blushed. Ouma groan, now lying face down on the floor. 

"Please just pretend you didn't see that" He said, still not looking Momota in the face. 

"Hey, it's okay! I think it's pretty cute!" Kaito grinned, deciding to sit on the floor in front of the still laying down Ouma.

"...cute?" Kokichi repeated, slightly lifting his head up.

"Yeah! I didn't know you like me that much! And the collection is pretty impresive, not gonna lie!" Apollo winked at him, making the boy huff.

"It's not because I like you, idiot, I just...uhh...like your costume design...?" Kokichi was really too tired to actually try to lie. He got woken up at 2 am only for a man he was avoiding to burts into his room. He was too embarassed after finding out Kaito is Apollo to really talk with him. He heard him talking about Apollo so many times...he completely humiliated himself. What if Kaito hates him now?

"I told you, it's okay! I'm suprised you have so many stuff with my old costume! And even the old logo! And you sleep with a tiny plushie me? That adorable!" Momota made an "aww" sound, causing Ouma to smack him on the head, blushing.

"You don't find it weird?" He asked, still slightly nervous.

"Not at all! Except for the boob mouse pad. It needs to be gone" Kaito said, deadly serious. Ouma gulped, ready to hide his face in the floor again, but Momota finally dropped his stone cold expression and started to laugh. Kokichi soon started giggling too, the mood in the room finally lightening up.

"Is that why you didn't talk to me much? You got scared I will think you're weird?" Momota raised his eyebrow, looking at the blogger.

"I didn't get scared! Maybe I just needed a break from your ugly face!" Ouma stuck his tongue out at him in response.

"If it was ugly you wouldn't have it all over your room!" Momota yelled, trying not to chuckle.

"It's covered, there's a difference!" Both of them continued to jokingly argue for a while. Kaito only now noticed the pyjamas the other boy was wearing. It was a one piece onesie, with Apollo's hero costume printed on the fabric. He thought Ouma was quite...endearing in this outfit. The fact that his tiny body seemed to drown in the material, combined with the messy hair and small yawns he let out once in a whole really made him cuter than usually. 

"Hey, do you want to like...fly somewhere with me?" Kaito asked, standing up and giving Kokichi his hand.

"Fly?" Ouma pulled himself up on Momota's hand, finally getting off the floor.

"There's one place not too far away from here that I like. I though I could take you there! It's kinda my secret spot, but I think you will like it!" Taller man opened the window, jumping out and flying up in the air. He reached his hand back into the room, waiting to see if Ouma will accept the invitation. Soon enough, the blogger grabbed his hand, sliding out of his apartment. He quickly clinged to Kaito, trying not to look down. Was he scared of heights? Momota couldn't really blame him, he used to be scared of them too, especially before he learned about his powers.

"Don't worry, I won't let you fall, okay? You can hold me as tight as you want!" He chuckled and picked Ouma up bridal style. Kokichi tried his best to hide to flush that appeared in his cheeks, wrapping his hands around Kaito's neck as tightly as he could. Momota laughed again and slowly started flying forward. Kokichi was scared at first but decided to try his best to just trust Kaito, slightly relaxing. It was still late (or very early, depending on the point of view) so no many people were in the streets. The whole city seemed so quiet and peaceful, a pretty rare sight to witness.

After what felt like a couple minutes, Kaito started to lower them down, finally touching the ground. They were on a small hill in the outskirts of the city. It was covered with grass, a few flowers peaking out of it. Momota smirked and dropped Ouma, the boy yelping before falling on the suprisingly soft ground. Kaito soon layed down next to him, turning his face towards the sky. Kokichi did the same, gasping. The world above then was like a beautiful painting, covered with stars. He didn't think he ever saw this many of them before. They were all shining brightly, away from the city lights.

"I come here at night to think. You probably noticed but I like space a lot, I think I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger. Watching all of this, so close yet so far away...it kinda calms me down, you know? Lets me clear my mind" He explained, still staring at the sky. Kokichi wanted to throw some mean comment but decided not to, instead moving himself closer to the man.

They spent most of the night in silence, sometimes interrupted by Momota showing Ouma a specific star or pointing out a constellation. After some time Kokichi started shivering from cold, but Kaito quickly took off his cape and wrapped it around him, making sure to also press himself closer to him in order to "warm him up". They both haven't felt this relaxed and nice since a long time. Kaito didn't even notice Kokichi falling asleep, his head on the hero's shoulder. He watched Ouma's unconcious face for a while, hearing the calm breathing and little snores. He decided it's time to take him back home, without waking him up of course. He flew all the way back to the blogger's tiny apartment, gently slipping him into the bed. He tucked him in, pulling the covers up and brushing some hair out of his face. He also took one of the plushies and handed it to the sleeping boy, looking as he cuddled it to his chest. He was slightly tempted to do one more thing but decided not to, thinking it would be weird. 

After whispering one last goodnight, he finally left Ouma's apartment and went home.

Not before grabbing the tiddy mouse pad and throwing it into the nearest dumpster of course.


	7. Chapter 7

The next few weeks were mostly peaceful. There wasn't much villians attack, only small robberies and other less important things. The "impostor", as Future Foundation decided to call them, still haven't been discovered, but there was a huge chance they could be hiding anywhere in the office. There was no way they could mess up that mission that fast without having first hand informations. They installed some new security systems and cameras, just in case, but nothing seemed to help.

He and Ouma spent more time together again, after the whole misunderstanding between them got explained that one night when Kaito decided to visit him. Since then he's been checking up on him more and more, hanging out in his apartment. Kokichi showed him his figures collection, obviously hiding some of them (maybe that's even better, Kaito didn't want to see l why they needed to be hidden). Momota talked to him about his job, describing how it is to work with Future Foundation. He also told Ouma some funny stories he had about other heroes, like that one time Artemis spilled coffee all over herself and had to go fight in a stained costume. He also offered to give the boy one of his old costumes, since he wasn't really using it anymore and it would fit with Ouma's collection. He could never forget how excited and happy the blogger looked when he said that. 

The two of them were currently having a walk, chattering and laughing while talking about a dumb romance movie they watched together just a an hour ago (going to cinema together wasn't a date, of course, it was just...friendly hanging out?), when they heard some sort of yells comming from behind. Kaito's first though was that one of the villians decided to attack and was about to run for his costume, but Ouma stopped him, grabbing his arm and pointing towards the source of noises. 

A boy with blue hair was running, clearly distressed, while a group of what looked like teenage girls and adult men were squeling and following him. After a while of looking, Momota finally recognised the said boy, sighning. It was Shuichi and his creepy fans again. Time to help out. 

He dragged Kokichi into one of the back alleys, waiting for the group to come closer, and as soon as he saw Shuichi he made a portal under him, making him fall into the black void. The fans stopped, confused, looking for him, meanwhile Saihara dropped down next to his hero from the second portal. Hopefully no one noticed them.

"Oh, hi Kaito...uh, thanks for helping. Again" he got off the ground, dusting off his pants. 

"What just happened?" Ouma looked at them, tilting his head.

"Shuichi had problems with his fans again. That's exactly why I'm hiding my identity! Some of them are really crazy" Momota groaned, checking if the people are still need. It looked like they all ran off somewhere.

"You're Shuichi? Shuichi Saihara? M.cr?" Ouma asked, recognising the other man.

"Y-yeah, that's me. You're Ouma right? Kaito told me a lot about you" He smiled, shaking Kokichi's hand. 

"He did...? I mean, of course he did, why wouldn't he talk about me, he's obseeeessed with me! He broke into my apartment like 7 times!" Ouma giggled, the taller boy groaning and slightly punching him in the shoulder.

"I didn't break in, I just visited without an invitation!" He pouted, rolling his eyes. 

"I think I'm going to leave now, thanks again for help..." Saihara muttered, trying to quickly walk away. He didn't want to risk more fans seeing him again, he was already too tired for that.

"Oh come on, Shuichi! We were about to go to my house, you can join! You haven't visited in a while!" Kaito grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged the poor man back to them. 

"It's because your house is a mess Kaito" Shuichi chuckled.

"No it's not!" Momota yelled, embarassed.

"He's not the most...tidy person" Saihara explained to Ouma, the boy nodding. He wondered how good of a friends Saihara and Momota were. They seemed pretty close, which wasn't really that much of a suprise, they worked together and knew eachother longer. But why was he feeling so weird? Why was he not happy with Kaito focusing on Saihara instead of him? Was he jealous? No, of course he wasn't, why would he be?

"Kichi? You're okay there? You totally spaced out!" Kaito waved his hand on front of Ouma's face, waiting for a response. Kokichi blinked a few times, shaking his head.

"Of course I'm okay, Idiot-chan! Though I'm worried about you, I dunno if that pea sized brain of yours can last much longer" Ouma snickered, earning another gentle punch for his mean comment. 

After arguing for another 10 minutes, they finally started heading towards Kaito's house. It wasn't too big, but definitely not as small as Ouma's apartment. It had one floor with a kitchen combined with a living room, another area that was a small bedroom and of course a bathroom. And well, Shuichi was right. Kaito was not a tidy person. Sink was full of unwashed dishes, packagings of some cheap instant ramen lying down in random places, cans of beer and sugary soda drinks placed all over the table. The only thing that seemed to be taken care of were the plants. A lot of plants. 

"And you said my home was bad! You live like a total hobo!" Complained Ouma, dropping on Momota's couch. Shuichi soon joined him, sitting in the small armchair next to it.

"Listen, it's hard to clean this place up when I not only work at a coffee shop but also have to do hero stuff all the time! And at least I don't have fucking boobs and asses mouse pads in here like SOMEONE does!" He glared at Kokichi, walking into the kitchen section and starting to prepare coffee for his guests. 

"Ah?" Shuichi looked counfused, trying to think about what he just heard again.

"I have those squishy mouse pads with Apollo that have big boobies and asses but SOMEONE keeps throwing them away!" This time Ouma was the one to glare at Kaito, showing him a middle finger. Momota responded with the same gesture, both of them trying not to laugh.

"Ah, those ones..." Shuichi mumbled.

"I spent aaaall my money on them only for this monster to throw them away!" Kokichi whined, now laying on the sofa.

"What do you even need them for!?" Kaito yelled from the kitchen.

"They look funny! And I can slap the ass cheeks-" 

"THAT'S GROSS, COME ON!" Momota stopped him, his face red.

"Well I can't touch the real thing sooooo-" 

"Kichi one more word and you are leaving this household" Kaito warned him, before sighning and pouring coffee into two mugs he grabbed from the shelf. Shuichi wanted to ask about the nickname his friend have the other boy but instead he stayed quiet, not wanting to make things awkward. Momota walked over, handing the two of them cups (a blue one for Shuichi, a white one with kittens on it for Ouma, followed by Kaito's explanation that "I thought you might like it"). The he apologized and said he needs to go find something in his bedroom, leaving the two of them alone. They stayed silent for a while, not really sure what to say.

"So...you and Idiot-chan have been friends for how long?" Ouma tired to start a conversation, sipping his coffee. 

"Oh, um, I think 5 years now? Or 6. We met when we were both 17, so a long time ago. Because that's when you know, Future Foundation found him and I was already there and we kinda started talking" Saihara explained, slightly nervous.

"Wowie, that's long! You probably have a looot of blackmail material on him, don't you?" Kokichi giggled, looking at him.

"I mean, I do have some...not too nice stories about him, but I wouldn't use them against him!" He almost spilled his coffee over himself, jumping up a little.

"I was just joking, don't be so serious! Being too serious is super boring! Tell me something more about Kaito!" Ouma grinned, curling up on the couch. 

"Well...he is a great person. He might not be too smart sometimes, but he really isn't that dumb. He wouldn't be as much of a great hero as he is if he was dumb. I remember whenever we work together he always seems so...confident and brave and I really admire that. I really admire just, him, in general. He helped me so much and I don't know what I would do without him..." Saihara blushed, turning his gaze away from Ouma. He felt like he said a little too much. The last thing we wanted the other to know is that he, well, we likes Kaito in that way. Not like he would ever admit to that, he knew Momota didn't like him in a romantic way way and he already accepted that. 

Ouma felt a little ping in his heart, like a needle stabbing into him. Suddenly his mood dropped and he couldn't help but feel slightly sad and, suprisingly, angry. It's absolutely not because he was jealous, no, of course not. But the way Saihara was talking about Momota and how Momota was talking about him earlier...were the two of them secretly dating? Why was Kokichi so upset with that idea?

"I'm back guys! Also, Shuichi, Miss Kyoko called me because you're not answering your phone, she needs you to help her with some files" Momota stepped into the living room holding a box, smiling at the men. Saihara got up, apologizing for going so soon, and left.

Now it was only Kaito and Ouma.

"Hey, Kichi, what's up with that wry face? It doesn't look good on you" Momota chuckled, joining him on the sofa.

"Everything looks good on me, dumbass!" Exclaimed Ouma, snapping back from his thoughts. He couldn't let Momota know how he felt right now, he already humiliated himself enough im front of him.

"Oh come on, I know something is up! What is it?" Kaito asked again prodding the boy with his elbow.

"Okay, okay, so I was thinking about the mouse pads-"

"That's a lie. Come on, just tell me what's wrong" Momota seemed actually worried nowz his hand resting on Ouma's shoulder.

"It might be hard for someone as dumb as you to understand, but...are you and Shuichi dating?" Kokichi said the last part quieter, looking down. He expected a harsh answer, but instead he got...laughter?

Kaito was laughing, so hard that tears appeared in corners of his eyes. 

"Me and Shuichi!? Dating!? That's the funniest thing I heard recently! He's like a little brother to me, my sidekick! Of course I'm not dating him!" Ouma felt better at those words for some reason. Maybe he really was jealous, but was that wrong? He often felt this way around Momota. He wanted him to give the soft affectionate looks only to him. He wanted Kaito to focus on him, he wanted to be the center of his attention. Was that bad? Why did he feel this way? He knew why, he knew it since the fall incident, but he wouldn't admit it out loud. Not ever.

"By the way, I got you the old costume. As I promised, just open the box" Said Kaito. Ouma immediately stopped thinking and almost threw himself on the box, his head buzzing with excitement.

Maybe, just maybe, most of Kaito's attention was already on him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another reminder to check riolu.kakyoku on Instagram, they are making a lot of amazing arts for the au!


	8. Chapter 8

Kokichi didn't expect his Saturday to end up with him being drunk in Kaito's house, but life is full of suprises.

It all started with Kaito calling him, saying he took a day off from work at the café. He said he's going to be busy with something, but didn't tell Kokichi with what exactly. Then, around 7 pm, he finally called him again, inviting him over. Normally Ouma wouldn't agree, but it was Momota asking him, so of course he couldn't refuse. He grabbed his bag, put his laptop inside (he always carried it around, mostly because of his sometimes really sudden ideas for his blog) and walked all the way to his friend. Definitely a friend. When he arrived, Kaito jumped out in front of him with a party hat on his head and a bottle of wine in hand. He quickly explained it was his "hero annivesary" and he wanted Ouma to celebrate with him. He was a little suprised the man didn't invite any other people, but decided not to ask too much about it. 

"So, what's the whole hero annivesary about?" Asked Ouma while Kaito grabbed two beers from the fridge, deciding that they should drink them before the wine.

"Well, exactly 7 years ago on this exact day i got my superpowers! I mean, most people wouldn't look at that as something to celebrate, but I think, like, why not? Thanks to them I can help people so I think I should show that I'm happy with them!" He smiled, opening one of the cans and chugging down some of the beverage with a loud gulp.

"You never really told me how you got them, Kai-chan" Ouma grabbed the other can, opening it. He wasn't really a big fan of alcohol but he really felt like getting drunk today has a good idea. He was starting to feel slightly weird and stressed around Kaito, his heart constantly beating faster when the other man did even something as simple as looking at him. He needed to forget about that and finally relax.

"Shit, you wanna know? I'm not even sure how to start" Kaito took of the hairtie that kept his hair in a low ponytail, sighning and letting them fall on his shoulders. Kokichi couldn't stop himself from thinking he really looked good like that.

"Of course I wanna know, idiot! Spill the origin story! But make it interesting!" The short boy giggled, finally drinking some of the beer. It didn't really taste good, but he decided not to complain.

"Well, as I said, it all started 7 years ago. I was 16 at the time and I was absolutely obsessed with space. Well, still am!" Kaito chuckled.

"Of course you are, else you wouldn't drag me on your little stargazing trips do often" Kokichi rolled his eyes. He actually liked them a lot, he loved watching Kaito get so excited over different stars, but he would absolutely not tell him that.

"Because of that, I dreamed about being an astronaut. I wanted to see the space from closer, you know? Really experience it. I was pretty impatient though and I looked pretty old for my age, so I kind of...used a fake ID a lot. Mostly for alcohol and stuff, I was a pretty dumb kid-" 

"Don't worry, that didn't change, you're still dumb" Ouma snickered, Momota glaring at him and throwing a pillow from the sofa on his face before continuing.

"As I was saying, I was a pretty dumb kid, so I didn't think it was that bad. Then I realised I could actually use it to try to apply for an astronaut training. I thought being the world's youngest astronaut would be so cool! I found the right place, they didn't realise the ID was fake, everything was going great. I passed some exams, trained, all this stuff" Momota explained, taking a break to drink more.

"You? Passing exams? I'm starting to think the story is fake!" Kokichi giggled.

"Kichi, come on. Anyways, back to the story. One day they, during the training, they announced they have a new...testing machine? Something like that. They called it Black Hole Simulator but never really explained how it works. And as you can probably guess I, uh...I was the one to test it out first" Kaito finished his beer, glancing towards Ouma. The boy seemed to he focused on him, carefully listening to the story. "I...I went inside the thing. It was kinda like a small capsule, I wasn't really too worried about what will happened, just curious. They said they are starting the simulation but nothing happened. They tried again- still nothing. I was about to ask what was going on but then then, uh, the whole thing just kinda exploded"

Ouma's expression slowly turned from interested to concerned, his hand squezing harder on the beer can.

"It clearly wasn't supposed to happen, the whole thing just blew up and got on fire. I'm pretty sure I would die there, but when I opened my eyes I wasn't even there? I was in the other half of the hall. Just out of nowhere. I still got kinda hurt though, I have scars on my stomach and part of my arm. Some of them are from the fire, some from some acid, apparently there was a lot of chemicals there. No one could really tell me how that happened, but that when my powers kinda started to show. At first I kept it a secret, then tried fighting crime by myself and then, as you know, Future Foundation found me and helped me out" 

"What do you mean by 'helped you out'?" Asked Kokichi, putting his can away and starting at Kaito.

"Uh, I kinda ended up homeless at one point? I didn't have much money, couldn't pay the rent, got kicked out, the only family I had were my grandparents and I didn't wanna bother them, not a big deal. The Future Foundation somehow found out I'm Apollo and offered me to stay with them for a while. Then I started working for them, got an extra job in the café, also started getting payed by them and I finally bought my own house!" Momota exclaimed happily, quickly going to the kitchen to grab more beer. Ouma didn't protest, he just took another can that the other man offered him.

"Well, that sure wasn't as boring as I thought it will be" He muttered, trying to get more comfortable on Kaito's sofa.

"Well...what's your story?" Kaito looked his way, gulping down more alcohol.

"Oh, suddenly interested in my boring civilians life, mister hero?" Kokichi chuckled, his fingers tracing the edge of the drink in his hands.

"I don't know much about your past or anything, I just thought it would be nice to listen to you talking!" Momota pouted, moving himself closer to Ouma.

"Okay, okay, I miiight just tell you without lying too much" Ouma smirked, taking a big sip before talking. "I was raised by my parents and homeschooled most of my life. Not because they wanted to be closer to me or something, they were jerks. Still are. Only thing they really care about are money, reputation, all that bullshit. They wanted me to take over their company, they have a biiiiig business and I guess are kinda rich, but I said no. I don't wanna be like them and the job is super boring. They weren't too happy about that so they decided to send me here for college hoping I will 'change my mind', but honestly? Fuck them. They still send me money every month though, they just refuse to talk to me" He said quickly, not looking in Kaito's direction. He wasn't really sure why he suddenly got so honest. Was it because if the alcohol? He did feel a little dizzy, definitely already was drunk, but was it the reason? Or did he just want to be honest around Kaito?

"Damn, Kichi, that's...that sucks" Momota wraped his arm around Kokichi's shoulders, pulling him closer.

"Oh come on, don't get so emotional now, that's gross!" Ouma whined, sticking out his tongue to show his of course faked disgust.

"I'm trying to comfort you, you little shit! We both had it rough, but at least I had someone who supported me unlike you. But now you have me and I'm going to be there for you whenever you need me!" Kaito smiled warmly at him, ruffling his hair and finally grabbing the wine bottle, opening it. 

"Bleeeeeh, Kai-chan is so sappy!" Kokichi tried his best not to show the blush on his cheeks and the warmth he felt on the inside after he hear the man's words. Kaito actually cared about him, didn't he? He invited him to celebrate something important to him, he shared his story, he comforted him even though it was his day. Maybe...maybe Kaito liked him more than Ouma thought?

"You okay there Kichi? I spilled some wine, pretend you can't see it" Momota laughed, putting the bottle away. 

"Kaito..." Kokichi, already drunk, decided it's enough. Normally he would absolutely never do that, but right now he didn't care. He moved closer, practically crawling on Kaito's lap.

"Uh, Kichi?" Momota looked confused, alcohol also slowly blurring his mind. 

Kokichi didn't say anything. He leaned closer, his face moving towards Kaito's. He could feel his warm breath, their lips being less than an inch away from eachother. Ouma closed his eyes, getting ready to close the space left between them. He would finally taste Momota's lips, finally get the affection he craved from him. He was just about to do what he craved to do for so long when Kaito suddenly just...moved away.

Ouma opened his eyes, confused why he's not as close to the other boy as he should be. Momota shifted himself on the other end of the couch, looking down.

He looked uncomfortable.

Then it hit Ouma. He was uncomfortable because of him. He made Kaito uncomfortable. He tried to kiss his only friend, expecting he would like him back. 

He messed up.

"I need to go" Kokichi got off the sofa, quickly grabbing his bag.

"No, it's late, you shouldn't-" Momota tried to stop him, but the other boy was already putting on his shoes. Before he could even say goodbye, Ouma ran out.

Kokichi ran through the streets, cussing at himself for being so stupid. He got too comfortable, too dumb, how could he think that Momota ever liked him back!? He tried to ignore the wetness in the corners of his eyes, he wouldn't allow himself to be vurnerable. He tried to run faster but instead he accidentaly tripped, landing face first on the sidewalk.

"Oww, stupid mean sidewalk! Fuck, I hope my laptop didn't broke-" He looked around, his eyes finally meeting the bag he dropped seconds ago. He walked up to it, kneeling and reaching inside to check if his laptop was okay. He couldn't help but feel anxious, like something in the back of his head was telling him he's in trouble, but he thought it's just because he was scared he messed up his computer, maybe also because of the situation he just had with Kaito. He opened it, checking for any demage, staring at the black screen. There was a small crack on the monitor, but everything else seemed fine. He could see his reflection in the glass and how messy his hair looked, how puffy his eyes were. He chuckled, maybe to just try to convince himself he was feeling okay, and tried to fix them up, when suddenly he noticed a reflection of something else that made his heart stop.

Someone was standing behind him.

Before he could scream or run the stranger hit his head, causing him to fall on the ground. He tried to stand up, but another hit got delivered to his skull, making him feel more dizzy than the alcohol did. Dark spots danced in front of his eyes, everything seemed blurry and he couldn't fully understand what was going on anymore. The last thing he saw was a streak of dark blue hair, before he finally passed out.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning before reading: This chapter involves a torture scene

Ouma blinked a few times, groaning. He tried to focus, his eyes still a little blurry. He wanted to move his fist to rub his eyes, but something was stopping him. He tried again- still couldn't move it. He tried the other hand, but same thing happened. It took him a while, but he finally realised.

He was tied up.

"You finally woke up! I was scared I hit you too hard for a second, haha!" Ouma shuddered as a loud female voice rang close to him. Too close. His eyes finally focused, now looking straight at his possible kidnapper's face. Grey eyes, blue long hair, glasses. Looked pretty plain to him, but also weirdly similiar. Who could that be...wait...Tsumugi!?

"So I'm gonna start off really nicely, okay? I'm Tsumugi Shirogane, you already know that, but you might also know me as...Missshift" She grinned and Ouma's eyes widened. He knew very well who MISSSHIFT was. A very dangerous criminal with the power of shapeshifting, a current leader if the villian group known as Team Danganronpa. She took over after Junko Enoshima, the past leader, has been arrested. The only reason why that happened that he could think of was that someone probably saw him talking with Kaito, well, technically Apollo, and decided to use him as a bait. That means he should just play along until Kaito comes in and rescues him. Would he rescue him? He messed up last time they interracted, what if Kaito decides he prefers to just let him rot here? 

No, Kaito wouldn't do that, even if he was mad at him. He will save him. 

"So at first I wanted to force you to tell me Apollo's secret identity, since you obviously know something, but you already kind of helped me with that. Apollo slipping up and following you around really helped a lot, it wasn't too hard to put facts together considering you only talk to two people- Apollo and that...stupid coffee boy. Didn't expect the big hero to work in a gross café, but oh well. I was even going to stop spying on you when I finally discovered his identity, but then I thought- but where would be the despair? That would be extra boring, you know? So I got a way better idea!" She smiled and stepped away from him, going over to some kind of bag laying in the corner. Ouma wanted to protest, lie he doesn't know who Apollo is, but he knew full well it wouldn't do anything. The woman in front of him was one of the most wanted criminals, an absolute psychopath. The group she belonged to was responsible for mass murders, even if he didn't know Apollo he would still die. 

At least now all the weird recent facts made sense. The talk with Kaito before the fall incident even though Kaito was fighting at the moment, the weird feeling of being watched even when he was alone. She caused all of that.

"You're really quiet Ouma. I didn't expect that from you" She started dragging the bag closer. Kokichi swallowed the saliva gathering in his mouth down, trying not to show how nervous he was.

"I just oooobviously don't wanna waste my precious voice on you!" He tried his cocky tone, hoping it didn't sound too fake. He needed to calm down, everything was going to be okay, Kaito was going to save him soon. He was sure he will.

"You probably have so many questions, don't you? I'm going to be nice enough to answer...hm...one of them. Better ask me quick or I might just get bother" Tsumugi chuckled.

"I guess I don't have a choice, huh? Meanie. But if I really really have to, then...why did you pose as Kaito and told me to go on that building? What did that give you?" He asked, his tone changing to more serious one.

"I wanted to plainly see how much Apollo cares about you! I ordered my puppets to specifically make you fall, just to see how he reacts! And now that I know how much that dumb hero boy needs you, I know how much it will hurt him if I just take you away!" She laughed, making Ouma feel even more uneasy. He should have known something was off back then. It was his fault.

Shirogane stopped laughing, now looking straight at him.

"I thought about a nice game we could play together! Well, nice for me at least" She giggled, reaching into the bag, pulling out...a knife. Ouma's breath got quicker, eyes slightly widening. She's not going to kill him, that wouldn't make sense, he knew that. But still, just the fact she had a weapon and he was absolutely defenseless was really...panic causing. She came up closer to him, rolling up his sleeve.

"You have a really nice skin...what a shame it would be to ruin it" She grabbed the knife, dragging it along his arm, pressing harder and harder. Kokichi bit his lip, not letting any sounds out. He had a high pain tolerance, it wasn't really that bad for him. That of course didn't mean that deep inside he wasn't terrified. Tsumugi clearly wasn't pleased with it, pressing harder. A little droplets of blood started forming on the cut, become bigger and bigger, until they started spilling on the sides, covering his arm with blood. Tsumugi smiled, stopping for a second, just observing the cut she made. Ouma tried to focus on something else then the unpleasant stinging of the wound. Shirogane gripped the knife tightly again and continued her work. Sometimes she made small but deep cuts, sometimes long but shallows ones. Some were just straight lines, some were made into the shape of X. The whole time he stayed silent, not giving his kidnapper what she wanted. The blood started dropping on the ground, small puddle starting to form close to his leg. It also started sinking into the fabric of his rolled up sleeve, soaking into the purple fabric of his sweater. Finally Tsumugi stepped back, giving him a break...only to switch to his other arm and continue the assault. This time he could feel the knife press deeper and harder, causing more demage. The cold blade made his skin tingle, the open wounds stinged and itched. Still, Kokichi made no noises except occasional gasps. He blinked down any gathering tears, swallowed every yelps, groans and whines of pain. 

"That was a nice warm up, right? You look so pretty now! I'm sure your precious Kaito would love to see the state of your arms! I mean, he would save you by now if he didn't want this happening to you, right?" She sent him a curious gaze, followed by a grin. Kokichi had to try his best not to glare at her. 

"It's not like I need him! I have a whoooole big super secret organization going to rescue me!" Ouma smiled, his childlish tone hiding all his anxiety away.

"But...that's a lie, isn't it? Did I get it right? You like to say that phrase, don't you? I saw you using it a lot in that little blog of yours. I've been observing you for some time, of course I know you like it. I've been watching you everywhere. Your apartment, Momota's house, on the street, in cinemas, even in your collage, but you know about the last one. I had to, you know, eliminate one of the students, it would be suspicious if there was one extra person in class, but it sure was worth it" Ouma could feel his head fill up with even more thoughts and panic as she said that. Someone got hurt. Someone he possibly knew got hurt. Someone he possibly knew got hurt because of him.

He focused back on his current situation as Tsumugi got closer to him again, the knife hanging above his skin in her hand. She moved the weapon closer to one of the biggest wounds on his arm. He watched as the metal tip poked at the cut. She kept touching it, sending pulses of pain through the small boy. Finally, she moved the knife away. Kokichi hoped it would be the end, at least for a while. Tsumugi wasn't doing anything so maybe he was right?

Right after he thought that, she stabbed the weapon right into his arm.

Kokichi had to bite down the scream, causing just a muffled groan to leave out of him. Tsumugi grinned and moved the knife while it was still plunged deep inside his skin. After a while she pulled it out, tossing the knife behind her. Ouma squezed his hands into fists, still trying to stay strong.

"Now we can finally get to the fun part! I've never tortured anyone by myself, I'm kinda a newbie when it comes to that, you know? I expected more screams and crying and begging, the silent treatment is really not what I'm into. That just means I have to try harder to get the sweet noises out of you" She reached into the bag again, opening something inside of it, making sure the boy couldn't see what she was doing. As she moved away from the bag, Kokichi knew there was something in her tightly squezed fist, bit he couldn't figure out what it was.

That is, until it was thrown at him.

He screamed as the salt Shirogane threw at him got into his cuts. He could feel all of them burn and sting, the pain was almost unbearable. His gaze got blurry from tears he was still trying to blink away, he felt his whole body tremble. He didn't want to be here, it hurt so bad, he just wanted to go back to go back where he was before, back to Kaito's house, just back to him so he can feel safe. Why was Apollo not here yet? Momota wouldn't leave him, he was just searching for him, he had to stay calm and strong for him.

Missshift repeated her action, the small, white crystals of salt met his skin once again. Another yell followed it, Ouma again not able to bite it down. He kept whimpering as he was forced to take the pain, tied up and vurnerable. He hated every second of it. 

"That was fun, but I still have more planned. Though I wouldn't want to break my toy too fast, so I guess I will be nice enough to let you rest. I'll call someone to clean your pretty wounds, we wouldn't want you to die from infection, would we? But, well, not now. Maybe later." Said Tsumugi. Her victim couldn't even glare at her, he was too tired to force his head up.

"You're going to make a good weapon soon enough" She giggled, patting Ouma's cheek, turning on her heel and walking out of the room, maybe more like a cell, leaving and locking him inside.


	10. Chapter 10

"So what happened is that he leaned closer, got embarrassed and ran away?" Maki asked again, putting her coffee cup on the table. She, Shuichi and Kaito have been sitting in the café, discussing the problem that has been bothering Momota for over a week now.

"Exactly! I wanted to try to catch him, but then I remembered you two saying that I 'need to give people some space' so I just decided to wait till he feels better, but nothing happened! No texts, no calls, no meeting up- I haven't seen him since then!" Kaito groaned, slamming his face against the wood under him. He didn't want to bother Ouma or pressure him into anything, so after the fatal night he decided to give him some time for himself. He definitely hated that, but from past experience he knew that some people really need that and Kokichi was probably one of them. 

"I mean, maybe he just needs more time? It must have been hard for him, maybe he thinks what he did was wrong?" Said Shuichi after a while of thinking, sounding slightly unsure.

"What, he thinks breaking someone's personal space is wrong? I don't even have a personal space!" Whined Momota. Maki and Shuichi glanced at eachother, both of the sighning.

"Kaito, do you have any clue what he wanted to do back then?" Saihara questioned. They have been talking about this for so long already and he was getting slightly tired. He knew his friend could be...not too smart sometimes, but really?

"Uh? What do you mean?" Kaito looked at him confused, lifting his head from the table.

"He was trying to kiss you, idiot" Harukawa quickly threw the information at Kaito with annoyed tone. She was also getting tired of how oblivious Momota was.

"W-what!? No, he-"

"I have to agree with Maki, he was definitelly trying to kiss you" Shuichi confirmed. He wasn't too comfortable with the conversation, considering how he knew his crush will soon probably realise he likes the other boy, and the boy also clearly liked him too, but he was happy for Kaito. He knew he couldn't be with him, he knew that for a long time now, so it didn't really hurt that much.

"No but...but...o h" Momota blinked, analysing the fact he was just given. Kokichi. Kichi. Tried to kiss him. Kiss. On the lips. Like actually kiss. And he pulled away.

Oh my god he pulled away.

" I...I'M SO STUPID!" He yelled, his head banging against the table again. 

"You are, that's not new" Maki got a soft glare from Shuichi for her comment, but decided to ignore it.

"He probably thinks I hate him or something! And I didn't talk at all so he probably thinks I really really really really really-"

"That's a lot of 'reallys'-" Mentioned Saihara, but Momota continued.

"-really really really hate him! And I don't!" He explained, throwing his arms in the air.

"He knows you don't hate him, you are terrible at hating people" Said Harukawa, Shuichi nodding in agreement with her.

"No I'm not!" Kaito pouted.

"You say you hate some people, but um...you really don't, you still are pretty nice to them. I mean, maybe not nice, but like, you still care about them? Like you don't want criminal to get hurt, or more like hurt too much. You're just kinda...soft?" Mumbled the blue haired boy, looking down.

It took Kaito a while to understand what he means, but as soon as he realised he almost stood up, flushing red.

"I am NOT soft! I am anything but soft! I'm manly and heroic and-!...holy shit I'm soft" Momota gasped, covering his mouth down with his hand. He couldn't be soft! He was a hero and he had an important job, but...unless his anger didn't get out of control (although his sidekicks helped him with that a lot and now it didn't happen as often as before), he couldn't be really... not-nice to anyone. Sure, he yelled and sometimes told people to shut up or sounded mean, but he didn't hate anyone. Sometimes him acting rude was just his weird way of helping. 

"Hey, it's okay, being soft is not bad-" Shuichi tried to comfort him, putting his hand on Kaito's.

"It's not bad, it's awful" Maki cut through Saihara's words, taking a sip of her drink.

"Maki come on this is not going to help-"

"Ugh, I'm tired of this conversation, let me just end this" She stood up, walking from her place to Kaito, pulling his head up by grabbing his hair and glaring at him.

"Do you want to fix stuff with that annoying little shit?" She asked, staring at him.

"First of all, he is not a annoying, just a little shit, second of all it hurts-"

"Good. Now, since you clearly like him back, you will get your ass and-" She was stopped in the middle of talking but Momota's confused voice.

"I...I don't know if I like him back" He muttered, looking away.

"What?" Shuichi also seemed confused.

"You are head over heels for him, how can you not know?" Harukawa grabbed a chair and dragged it closer, sitting down again. This might take longer than she expected.

"I mean, remember when we were dating? It felt different" He said, looking at her.

Maki groaned, rubbing her temple.

"Of course it's different, idiot. We didn't actually like eachother, we were good friends and both thought that we should be dating, but then we both realised we are gay. How could you even think for a second it will feel the same with him? And I told you not to bring up us dating ever again, unless you want to die" Kaito gupled at her words. She really could be scary sometimes.

"Kaito, it's fine not to be sure of your feelings, that's why you should go talk with him" Saihara added, smiling awkwardly.

"I should?" Momota still sounded unsure, playing with his coffee cup to focus on anything else but all the thoughts trashing around in his head at that moment.

"Yes, you should. I can't believe I wasted over an hour talking with you about something so simple" Maki sighned, pulling out her phone and checking the hour. It was exactly an hour and 40 minutes since they arrived at the café, invited by Kaito while he was on his work duty. It all started normally, they had a small talk about how their weekeds went, how their work is going, just as always. But then soon it turned into Kaito Momota's therapy session. 

"It's not wasted if we helped him finally understand, right?" Saihara tried to cheer both of them up, but it didn't seem to work. 

"This idiot is going to mess up even more anyways" She rolled her eyes, her hands busy with fixing her braid.

"I'm not an idiot Maki-Roll!" Kaito whined.

"Don't call me that, I told you" She glared at him again, going back to braiding her hair.

"Kaito, listen, how about you just go and explain this situation to Ouma?" Shuichi offered, hoping that Momota will actually listen to him. He really loved his friends and wanted the best for them, but watching Momota being clueless for so long was really exhausting.

"Hey, I just got a great idea! I will go to Kichi and explain this to him!" Kaito stood up quickly, almost tripping the table and his chair down. His coffee cup did in fact fell down, coffee spilling on the floor.

"But I just told you to do that a second ago-"

"Shush Shuichi, don't interrupt my genius idea!" Momota grinned, holding his thumb up in his usual pose. Saihara just sighned in defeat. "I'm going to run to him now and tell him that!"

"No you won't, you have work" Maki stopped him, crossing her arms.

"But-"

"No buts, clean up that mess and finish you work first unless you want to die" She said harshly, Kaito nodding and running for a cloth to clean to floor with in panic. 

After two hours of cleaning up, serving coffee to customers and then cleaning again, his shift finally ended. He took off his apron and his cap, putting them in the tiny locker in the back room and pretty much ran out of the building.

He had to apologize to Ouma.

He decided it would be awkward to just go visit him empty handed. He went to the shop, grabbing a heart shaped box with chocolates. He knew Ouma had a sweet tooth and would absolutely love them. He didn't think it would seem romantic or anything, he just thought it looks nice. He payed for it, smiling brightly to the cashier lady, and continued his trip to Kokichi's apartment. He walked past a flower shop, but decided to go back, seeing a beautiful bouquet full of purple flowers. They reminded him slightly of Ouma's hair colour and eyes, so without thinking too much he bought it too. 

He ran through the streets, holding the flowers and chocolates tightly in his hands. He was grinning, his eyes almost sparkling. He missed Ouma so much, he didn't know how he could go on so for so long without him. He missed his voice, his high pitched giggling, his soft hair, his big purple eyes, the feeling of his body pressed into him whenever they hugged. He didn't want to make him upset, didn't want to make him think he disliked him, didn't want to lose him. He opened the entrance to the flat, ran up the stairs almost falling because of how fast and careless he was. He arrived at the 5th floor, breathing quickly, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He stood in front of Ouma's door, his hand forming into a fist, getting close to the door. He suddenly felt slightly anxious, stressed, his head buzzing. What would Ouma say after seeing him? What would he say to Ouma? What if he messed up?

It wasn't important. He was here, he knew what he did wrong and he was ready to apologize.

Just as he was about to knock, a door behind him opened. He turned around, an old, short lady with grey hair looking at him. 

"Oh my, you're that person that kept visiting that sweet boy living here, aren't you?" She asked, a worried expression on her face.

"If you mean Kokichi Ouma then yes, Miss" He nodded, slightly confused.

"He was so kind, he often helped me bring my shopping bags upstairs, really lovely boy, but he was way too skinny! Bones and skin, I say!" She chuckled sadly.

"What...what do you mean by 'was'?" Momota didn't know what was going on. Why was she talking like that? What did she mean?

"You don't know? Oh dear god, you don't know! I'm so sorry" She gasped, gazing at Kaito in pity.

"Don't know what?" He asked, his hands slightly trembling from nerves.

"Poor boy has been missing for over a week now. Police visited me some time ago, asking for him, but I didn't know anything. I said that-"

Momota knew she was still talking, but he didn't listen. His eyes widened, the chocolate box and bouquet fell out of his hands, dropping on the floor. He felt like everything around his froze.

Ouma was gone.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One again, a trigger warning for torture!

Ouma was tired. He didn't know how long he had been locked up here, but if felt like forever. He couldn't tell, there was no windows, no clocks, nothing. Just a dark, small, cold, dirty room with almost nothing inside. Maybe it was over a week? Two weeks? A month? He couldn't tell. He hated that. All this time he had been telling himself that Kaito is going to come, Kaito is going to find him, Kaito is going to save him. But where was he? Not here. And his situation kept getting worse.

Tsumugi didn't stop on just cutting him up back then. She came often, Kokichi couldn't even tell how many times, at one point he just stopped counting. He always tried acting like he doesn't care, like he isn't scared, like she won't break him, but in reality? He couldn't do it anymore. He was exhausted, in pain, barely could do anything. She was feeding him, just enough for him to not starve but not enough to stop feeling hungry. She sometimes gave him some water, but his throat still felt dry. One time, after not bringing him anything for what felt like days, she offered him a bottle of water. Not a small glass like before, a whole bottle. He didn't even care to put on his persona and act cocky, he just reached out for it without thinking, his body already too dehydrated. He almost had it...and then she spilled it all on the floor, grinning, and left. He ended up licking it from the ground, just to stop the terrible feeling and burning he felt, shuddering at the taste. He still felt humiliated thinking of that. 

That wasn't if course the worst thing she did, oh no, far from that. 

She usually enjoyed stabbing and cutting him, later using salt or lemons to make his wounds hurt more, but sometimes she got more creative. She would headphones on him and keep them on for hours, forcing him to listen to horrifying screams and whines until he couldn't handle it anymore. She electrocuted him, holding a teaser above his skin, hurting and making him jump again and again whenever he calmed down from a previous shock. She would force him to not blink for a long time, slapping and tugging on his hair whenever he couldn't keep his eyes opened anymore. 

One thing he noticed she did every time while hurting him was mentioning the same thing. Well, not thing, more like a specific person. That person being Kaito Momota of course. 

Missshift kept telling him how he doesn't care about him. How he left him here and forgot he exists. How he was happy he finally wasn't being bothered by someone as annoying as Ouma. How he didn't even try to look for him. How he let Kokichi get tortured. How it was his fault that Ouma was stuck here. 

He knew he shouldn't believe her, but his mind couldn't keep her words out of his head. She was right when it came to some stuff. Kaito didn't save him. He's been waiting for so long and he still wasn't here. He was still stuck in this claustrophobic room with no way out.

Well, he actually left the room once.

One time, he could guess it was like a few days ago, she dragged him out of his prison, throwing him into w bathtub in a creepy looking bathroom, telling him how he stinks and it is gross to even look at him. She started the water, looking at him in disgust and leaving him there. At first he relaxed, happy he could be away from her for a while, but soon he realised it was just another part of the awful torturing. The water started being too hot, way too hot for him to handle. It almost felt like he was being boiler alive, his skin stinged, especially in the areas of the wounds, so bad he wanted to cry. He tried to stop the water, but he could barely even move, his limbs refusing to listen to him. He screamed and begged, crying how he can't take it anymore and wants it to stop. When did he get do weak? Why was he giving up so easly and doing what she wants? Did he really expect that she will stop and do what he asks her to do? 

Suprisingly, Shirogane actually listened to him.

She came back and stopped the water. She still kept him in the bathtub, but it wasn't as bad as before. She combed her hand through his hair, almost petting him, telling him how he was okay now. He knew he shouldn't listen to her, he knew he was bad, but he let himself fell into the weird feeling of comfort for a second, closing his eyes and focusing on breathing. She took him out, holding his light, limp body. He felt relieved, glad it was finally over.

Only for her to suddenly throw him into an ice cold water, making him scream once more.

He wonder if he will get a lot of scars after all of this. Considering how many wounds he had, probably a lot. Almost none of them had any time to heal properly, Tsumugi made sure to reopen them any chance she had. What he found weird what that instead of letting him just bleed out to death or die from infection, she actually took care of the mess she left, cleaning all the cuts and bruises and sometimes even bandaging them.

Almost like she was trying to keep him alive, probably to use him for something. That sounded like something she would definitely do.

"Hello Ouma! Sorry for leaving you for so long darling~" Shirogane's voice stopped his thinking. She opened the door, stepping inside. Two more people came in behind her, dragging something with them before leaving.

"Visiting me again? How sweet of you" He chuckled, his voice clearly drained from energy. He wasn't even able to stand up from the cold floor.

"I just missed your cute begging noises, you know? And since you screamed so nice last time, I brought you a present!" She kneeled in front of him, grabbing his chin and tilting his head up. She used her other hand to bring the glass she took with her to his mouth, letting him drink. He gulped all the water down quickly, trying his best not to spill anything. He couldn't waste a single drop. Tsumugi smiled, scratching him behind his ear like he was a dog. Well, that was probably how she saw him. A pet she could play with when she was bored.

"You drank all of it, good boy!" She put the glass down and clapped, pleased with his behaviour. He didn't do what she wanted because he broke down or decided to do so, he was just simply too tired to fight with her.

"Don't call me that, bi-" He was about to curse at her, already getting pissed off by simply looking at her, but she stopped him, digging her sharp nails into his cheeks.

"Ah ah, what did I say about bad words? Also, I was thinking, wouldn't it be fun if I ordered you to call me Mistress? You would hate that, wouldn't you? But that's okay, I could just train you again till you learn it" She smirked, letting go off his face. 

"Is that what you will do to me today? Kinky" He laughed, his voice raspy. He had to keep hiding, keep pretending he didn't care. Because that was better than giving up completely, right?

"No, not really. I wanted to test out a new toy today, if you don't mind" She walked over to the machine the other guys dragged in before. It was a metal chair with different straps on it. It had two bars behind it, holding up some kind of bucket held on chains right above the seat.

"Have you ever heard of chinese water torture, puppy?" She asked, tracing her finger on the construction, turning her gaże slightly to her victim.

"Puppy? Ew, you should stop calling me that or I might just puke" Ouma glared at her, not caring he will get himself in trouble. He hated when she called him that.

"If you do, I will force it back to your throat until you choke in your own vomit, so I wouldn't try that, hun" Tsumugi threatended, grabbing him by his hair and dragging him to the chair. She forced him to sit down, snapping all the straps on place. Around his hands, legs and neck. They all held him in place, with his head slightly tilted upwards. She brushed some hair of of his forehead, almost too gently. He really wished he could bite her sometimes. She would look way better without that annoying, gross grin on her.

"I'm going to explain how it works now, okay dear? I'm going to start by swinging this little thing above your head. Then, cold water will start dripping right in the middle of your forehead, lets say maybe...maybe like every two seconds. It will hit the same spot over and over and over for hours" She explained, a big smiled glued on her face. Ouma couldn't help but nervously look away.

"That sound pretty boring, you know?" Kokichi pretended to be confident and playful, trying his best to not focus on his trembling body.

"Oh, don't worry, soon you will know how fun it can be" She patted his head and grabbed on the chain holding the bucket above his head, slightly swinging it.

First drop. Ouma shuddered a little because it was cold, but it was mostly because he wasn't prepared. He really doubted this torture will do anything to him, but he was slightly glad, at least it will give him a whole to rest.

Second drop. He didn't react this time, unbothered. Did his abuser really think it will hurt him? It was nothing compered to the stuff he's been through. She could really come up with something more interesting, he would at least have some form of entertainment.

10th drop. Still not bad. He was getting a little sleepy, but of course the drops were stopping him from just passing out. Maybe he could get some proper rest later.

30th drop. He was really getting bored. Shirogane wasn't talking, just patiently waiting for something.

???th drop. He messed up while counting and now he wasn't sure which drop it was.

10 minutes passed? Maybe? The droplets were starting to get slightly annoying.

30 minutes passed. Around 30 minutes. He was starting to feel really uncomfortable, he couldn't tell if it's because of he water or the way his neck was placed.

Hour. It's been an hour. He was feeling uneasy, was constantly trying to move but the straps kept him in place. He was starting to get anxious but he didn't know why. 

Hour and 15 minutes. His forehead felt itchy but he couldn't scratch it. He was starting to get more and more frustrated.

Hour and 30 minutes. He could feel his head starting to ache, his neck was cramped. He wanted this to end already.

Hour and 50 minutes. His head was banging, he couldn't focus, he was so tired, why was it not ending already?

He didn't know how long he was here. It hurt, it hurt so bad, he can't do this, why does it hurt? He felt so angry, so depressed, so drained. He couldn't do this, the drops were making him crazy. He was feeling fuzzy and sick, his forehead pulsed in pain. Why was he hurt? Did he convince himself it hurts? Or did it really hurt? So tired, he was so tried. Could this end already? Why wasn't it ending, it's been so long. Drop, drop, drop, he hated the sound of water hitting him, it was so annoying, why was it so loud? Make it stop, he wants to sleep, he wants his head to stop aching, make it stop, stop it, he couldn't continue, stop-

"S-stop it, please, please stop it, I can't-" Ouma didn't even realise he was saying it all out loud. Tsumugi smiled in victory, walking up to him.

"Stop it? But come on, I think you deserve to spend more time like this~" She chuckled, watching as he struggled, trying to again move his body, failing because of the straps.

"Please just end this, please, I can't do this anymore!" He yelled, eyes blurry with tears.

"I'm not convinced, you know? Only good boys deserve a break. Are you a good boy?" She teased, playing with her fingers on one of the straps. Kokichi bit down a sob, trying to look at her.

"I am, please, please just stop this-" He mumbled, still trying not to cry.

"You are what?" Asked Missshift, smirking.

"I'm a good boy! Stop it now please!" Ouma cried out, breaking down into sobs. Tsumugi seemed to like that, because she finally listened to him, stopping the bucket. She slowly undid all the straps while he was shuddering, tears falling from his face.

"Shhh, it's okay now, I stopped it, didn't I? It's not my fault it hurt, you know that. It's Kaito's fault. He was the one who caused all of your problems" She whispered while taking off the final piece holding his neck. 

Kokichi blinked a few times, repeating what she said. Kaito...who was...he knew who that was. Kaito Momota. Why did he forgot for a second? He knew who Kaito was. He was his friend, close friend, his...his something, he forgot the word. The word or the way he felt? Not important. He was a...a hero, he was a superhero, Apollo, he was working at a café, he couldn't remember the name, it wasn't important, he was...how old? Why couldn't he tell how old he was? He was probably just tired, that's why he couldn't tell, he needed to rest.

"You did well today, sweet dreams~" Shirogane waved her hand before leaving the room, once again locking Ouma up in his tight prison.


	12. Chapter 12

Kaito rubbed his eyes, trying to somehow wake himself up a bit before stepping into Future Foundation's office. He didn't sleep a lot, even though Shuichi and Maki reminded him many times to rest and "stop acting like an idiot" (Harukawa even dragged him to her own apartment, literally cuffing him to the bed, demanding he gets so sleep. He did, but felt twice as bad after he woke up). It's been happening ever since he found out Ouma was...not here. He wanted to say gone, but he hated the way it sounded. Which means he has been sleep deprived for almost a month. He has been looking for him for so long, finding any clue possible, but nothing lead him closer to the boy. He sent multiple emails to the hero organization, explaining how Kokichi's disappearance might be connected to the imposter hiding somewhere in their office. It had to be caused by the villians, considering how ever since Ouma got kidnapped (probably kidnapped), there has been no serious attacks. Instead of that they had more smaller issuess, like the robots. Strangely, they all seemed to have no reason to be there except for making mess in the city, almost like they were distracting them, leading him more to the theory that the two cases might be connected. 

Sadly, no matter how many times he tried to inform Future Foundation, trying to get them to help him with searching for the boy, he got no responce. Almost as if all his messages were being deleted the second he sent them.

He got so frustrated he called Kaede Akamatsu, one of his friends that was a secretary there, asking her to reserve him a meeting with Makoto Naegi, the head of the office. He stormed into the building, but even though he was supposed to meet with him, as soon as he got there he was informed that Naegi went away for a business trip. Why was he not informed his meeting with him was cancelled? The same thing happened again, over and over, whenever he tried to talk to Naegi.

What if someone was responsible for all of that? Why would they go out of their way to make his work harder?

"Momota? What are you doing here?" A female voice suddenly got him back into the reality, stopping his thinking. Kaede was standing in front of him, holding some kind of files in her hand. He was just thinking about her before, wasn't he?

"Oh, fuck, hi Kaede" He mumbled, trying to drag himself deeper into the office.

"You didn't answer my question" She stopped him by grabbing his arm, turning him back to her.

"I'm gonna...visit Naegi again...he won't go away this time..." Muttered Kaito, trying his best to keep his eyes opened.

"Oh no you won't, not like this. Come on, lets get you some coffee, you can talk to me instead" She sighned and dragged him into the the dining space with a small kitchen they had in the building. She sat him down on front of one of the tables, going to the coffee machine. After a while filled with buzzing and a sound of a liquid being poured into something, she walked back to him and handed him a cup. He took a sip, hot coffee helping him gain some energy back.

"So, what's going on? Why do you want to talk to Naegi so bad?" She asked, sitting jest to him. 

"I just...there's a case I can't stop thinking about. I'm sure it's connected to villian activity, which means we could get more our people involved in it since the police is not doing shit, but I keep getting ignored!" He yelled, anger splattered on his face. Akamatsu just nodded, humming, thinking about something for a while.

"Can you tell me what that case is? Maybe then I could, you know, understand a situation a little better" She proposed, brushing a strand of her hair behind her eat. Did she ever do that before? Not important, it's just stupid hair, Kaito needed to focus more on important things.

"There's, uh, this boy I was really close with. Really close. And one day he just...disappeared. I know he didn't just run away or anything like that, he wouldn't do that! I have this gut feeling, I just know it's somehow connected to the imposter in our office, I can feel it! It all just clicks!" He explained quickly, not caring how sloppy his theory sounds. It made sense, right? The timing of everything, it had to make sense, it was the only clue he had. He believed, no, he knew it was true.

"Kaito...I'm sorry, but I have to be honest with you" Said Akamatsu, looking down. 

"Huh?" He rubbed his neck, confused.

"It...you...well...how do I say this without sounding rude..." Kaede took a while to think of a right word that wouldn't offend the man too much, but gave up after a while. "Okay, I'm just going to say this, sorry. Kaito, you sound paranoic. You are clearly tired and not well, you're not thinking straight. You can't just rely on a gut feeling with something so serious! I'm sorry for you, but this is not something Future Foundation can help with. You have to hope the Police Departament deals with it"

"But-"

"Kaito. There's nothing pointing that this case could be connected to any of your superhero stuff. You have to let it go and wait" She grabbed his hand, squezing it in a way of comforting. Momota stopped trying to defend his statement, focusing on what Akamatsu said. She was right. Maybe he really wasn't thinking straight.

"You're...you're kinda right. I guess. Shit, sorry, I must have sounded pretty dumb" He chuckled sadly. He really hoped he got closer to finding out what happened to Ouma, but now he was back when he started, with nothing. He felt so...useless. He couldn't even protect the person he cared about. He promised Kokichi he won't let him get hurt again and he messed up. 

Was it...all his fault?

"Hey, I know you're still thinking about it. Come on, that's not going to help with anything! You need to rest, dummy. How about we just talk? Lets get your mind off this stressful stuff" She smiled brightly, clapping her hands together. Momota also didn't remember her doing that before, was he so focused on Ouma he forgot to notice his friend's new habits? Or did he just forget them?

"Okay..." Kaito took another sip of his coffee. "So, how are you doing? I don't see you at work a lot recently"

"Yeah, I'm taking a lot days off, my dog got really sick and I'm trying to take care of him! I don't want to leave my puppy alone" Said Kaede, giggling slightly. 

"A dog? Since when do you have a dog?" Asked Momota. He didn't remember his friend mentioning having a dog before. Or any pet, now that he thinked about it.

"Oh, well, I got him like...a month ago? Kind of" She explained.

"Well, good for you! Really didn't take you for a dog person" Kaito chuckled, putting his coffee cup down on the table.

"Having a pet is pretty fun, you should try it! Mine was a little...unruly at first, but I like to think I trained him pretty well! I still need to work on some stuff with him, but I would say he got pretty obedient" Akamatsu smiled again. 

"I don't really have time for a pet, don't think that would work out" He replied, sighning. Kaede looked at the clock on the wall, gasping slightly.

"My lunch break is almost over and I still want to go through these files before I need to get back to work, I'm gonna go now! You should go home and rest, going to Naegi really isn't a good idea. Bye Bye!" She stood up, grabbed all her papers and almost ran out (she couldn't really run too fast because of her heels, Kaito thought it looked funny). 

Momota was left alone, staring at the window in the dining area. He could see the blue sky, the bright sun, all the happy people talking on the street. Everything seemed so...normal. Everyone was so cheerful and happy, meanwhile he could barely get himself up on the morning. What happened to him? He used to be so optimistic and now...no. He couldn't just break down! He needed to get himself together, for Ouma. He won't be able to help him if he acts like this! He wasn't a depressed Man with sleeping issuess, he was Kaito Momota! Apollo! 

He started walking away from Future Foundation building. He wanted to fly, but he didn't have his costume on and didn't want to risk anyone seeing him, so instead he decided he will take a walk. He wasn't sure where he was going, he just needed to find a place to clear his mind. He let his feet drag him, not caring where they will take him. 

That's how he ended up on the hill. The same hill he came to before to think when he was stressed out, the same one with a great view on the stars.

The same one he and Ouma spent time together on, laughing and teasing eachother, sometimes just relaxing and sitting in silence.

He sat down, in his usual spot, looking up. He couldn't see any stars, of course not, it was still afternoon. In movies when characters were sad, were going through something rough, the world always seemed so grey, full of rain and cold weather. Meanwhile his world was still colourful, still sunny and pleasant. Almost like nothing happened. Ironic, isn't it? Everyone just acted like nothing happened.

He wondered if Ouma is okay. He hoped he was, he prayed that he would be at least slightly alright. He knew what others were thinking, he heard police officers whispering whenever he came to the station to ask if they have any new leads. They stopped looking for him.

They all thought he was dead.

He tried everything. He tried convincing them it's not true, tried looking by himself, tried forcing Maki, Shuichi and other heroes to help him. He even tried contacting Kokichi's parents, explaining to them what happened. 

They didn't care. 

He wondered why he himself cared so much. Of course he wouldn't just give up, even if he barely knew the kidnapped person. He just couldn't understand why it hurt this much when the person who this mess happened to was Ouma. Why was it so hard for him?

He remembered the last time they saw eachother. They were both drunk, in Kaito's house. Ouma leaned in, trying to...trying to kiss him. Why did he pull away? He didn't know, he didn't even know what the other boy was doing back then. Would nothing bad happen if he just stayed in place?

He imagined. The same scene from a month ago, him and Kokichi sitting together. The short man crawling on his lap, face close to him, leaning in. Their lips almost pressing, but this time without pulling away. This time he closed the space between them, actually...actually kissing him. He thought about Ouma gasping, maybe he would be suprised by his action. It would be pretty cute if his face got all red...why was he thinking about it?

It wasn't right, was it? It would feel weird if he had thoughts like that about Harumaki or Shuichi, so why did it feel so natural with Kokichi? Every thoughts that would be quite unpleasant if they were about anyone else felt so normal when they were about him. Holding hands, brushing his hand throught the puffy mess of purple hair, slowly carassing his cheek, kissing his soft looking lips, trailing down his neck with his mouth...

Is that what...actually loving someone felt like?

It was so different than what he felt when he was with Maki, he knew that, she told him it wouldn't feel the same. It was so much...nicer than with her. So much more comfortable and true. He didn't want to hide how he feels anymore, didn't want to try to convince himself he only liked him as a friend. He didn't. It took him so long to realise that, why couldn't he just understand it when the boy was still here?

He was in love with Kokichi Ouma.


	13. Chapter 13

How long has its been?

He couldn't remember. Actually, he couldn't remember a lot of things. He didn't know why, it was like something was blocking his head, not allowing him to think clearly. Why was it like this? Why couldn't he remember? He had to repeat things, over and over and over, scared he will forget them too. He didn't remember ever feeling so scared, but he couldn't tell if that's because he lost that memory too or was it really that bad. He didn't feel like himself. He had been slowly stripped from every little part of him. It was like she was tearing him apart, more and more and more until there was nothing left. She was taking everything he had, every piece there was left, and crushing it. He didn't want to laugh anymore, didn't want to joke, didn't want to tease, didn't want to be brave, didn't want to lie. 

For the first time in his life, he felt almost empty.

Almost. There was still a little light inside of him, a tiny bit of hope sparkling in his heart. He clinged to that feeling as much as he could, prayed she won't take it away too. He had only one thing making him feel warm, making him push through all the torture and all the abuse, one thing keeping him sane instead of falling into the madness. 

He still had Kaito, right? 

He repeated all he knew about him every day. Well, he couldn't tell if it was every day, he had no idea about the passing time, it was just easier to call it that. He tried his best not to forget, because he couldn't forget, he couldn't allow himself to forget. Kaito was going to save him, it was taking long, so long, so long he thought it will never happen, but he would, he had to. He promised, right? Kaito promised to keep him safe, he didn't make that up, he didn't forget. He wouldn't break his promise, would he? So it was okay. He just needed to wait.

Waiting hurt. She, Mistress, as he was now obligated to call her, didn't stop. Did she is ever stop? She stopped when he was good, so he should be good, but something was telling him it wasn't right. He shouldn't be good. He wasn't bad enough to get hurt more, but he still fought. Slightly, only slightly, with little to no force, but he did. He didn't always listen to her. He didn't want to listen to her. He was told to listen to her, but he refused. Not always, he did say or do whatever she wanted to sometimes, just because he was tired and didn't want to get hurt more. He didn't get hurt as much as before, not physically, she said it didn't work too well on him. She prefered to mess with his head, slowly, breaking him apart. It still hurt, just in a different way. Worse way.

Why should he not give up? Giving up would be easier. But Kaito wouldn't be happy if he gave up. Why did he care so much? He needed to care, he couldn't stop. Kaito was all he had now, right? But why? He couldn't even remember why he felt that way towards him, it was so frustrating.

What was wrong with him?

"Wake up dear~" Tsumugi stepped inside, grinning. Ouma didn't say anything, just slightly got himself up from the floor, now sitting down. 

"Aw, you listened to me! So well behaved, aren't you?" She smirked, getting on her knees, right in front of the boy. She cupped his cheeks with one hand, brushing through his hair with other. He didn't flinch, he already got used to her doing it a lot. It was the only form of comfort he had at all, so it was better to just accept it. It didn't feel that bad. He even leaned into her touch, just to feel something else than pain for a while. 

"Why so quiet? Aren't puppies supposed to be loud?" She giggled. Kokichi still didn't make any noise, he didn't want to. There was no point, why would he talk? Talking didn't have a point now. Shirogane was clearly not happy about that. The hand that was petting his head suddenly shut tightly, grabbing a fistfull of his hair, tugging hardly. "Will you talk now?"

"I wil, I will!" Ouma said quickly. He didn't want to make her angry, he was tired already and didn't want to go through another 'punishment'. 

"I thought you were doing so good...I guess I just have to continue the training" She sighned, getting up. He knew what she wanted to do.

"No! No, no, I'm..." He started muttering nervously. Tsumugi looked his way, a smirk appearing on her face.

"Hm? You're what?" She asked, putting her fingers under his chin and moving them up, forcing him to move his head and look at her.

"I'm good" Ouma said with no hesistation. It was almost humiliating. Well, not almost, it just was, but for him it was better than getting hurt again. He didn't think he could handle it anymore. 

"Aww, you sound so cute saying that! Like an obedient little dog! I guess you deserve a prize, don't you?" She laughed, taking her hand away, letting the boy's head drop down, now staring at the floor again. He could hear sounds of steps, getting quieter and quieter, finally disappearing, but...why didn't he hear the sound of the door closing?

Kokichi looked up, staring at them, eyes widened.

Tsumugi left the door open. Did she forgot about them? No, why would she, it didn't make sense. She was probably going to come back soon and didn't see a point in locking them, thinking Ouma would just not notice. Did she think he would not try anything? He knew there was a long hallway leasing to his cell, with two doors at the end. The left one was a bathroom he was sometimes dragged into, but the right one? It had to be an exit, he couldn't remember seeing any other room, it had to be it. That means he could sneak out, there was a huge chance she didn't close them too, he could escape and be free and everything bad would stop and he would finally see Kaito again and-

He didn't move.

He couldn't force himself to move. One half of his brain was screaming to run, to get away, to use the only chance he has, but the second was reminding him of all the things that happened, all the things that could happen, giving him a sign that he had to listen to his Mistress, he didn't want to risk getting hurt again, right? He should sit here and wait until she comes back, prove he's good, he- no, what was wrong with him!? He didn't want to stay here, didn't want to listen to her. But who said the outside would be better? It was dangerous, right? No, this place was dangerous too, he had Kaito outside, he would be safe. But Kaito already failed him before, didn't help him, left him here, that's what Mistress said. She lied, right? No, she didn't lie, Kaito didn't care. No, he couldn't not care, he was just busy. Busy because he was not important to him, just like she said. His head hurt, he felt like something was banging inside of his brain. Why couldn't it stop? 

"Puppyyyyyy~! I'm back!" He could hear Shirogane yell, walking back into his room. He wouldn't be that suprised, he expected her coming back, if not...a muffled yells? 

He looked up, gazing at her and he felt his heart stopping.

There were two girls, both gagged and tied up, being dragged by Missshift. First one was a blonde young woman with a piece of hair hair slightly standing up on top of her head. She was dressed in pink, dirty shirt and a black office skirt with not intentionally ripped tights. The second one seemed more...similiar to Ouma. She had a really long brown hair, with two tiny braids hidden between the rest of her hairstyle. She seemed younger than the other one, maybe around Ouma's age? No, younger. She was dressed in some simple white clothes and a scarf...didn't he had the same scarf? Not now, long time ago, he couldn't remember.

"I brought some guests, thought it would be fun to have someone to celebrate since this is your final test!" She chuckled, throwing both new victims on the wall, slowly taking off their gags. Immediately the second girl looked at Ouma, a worried look in her eyes piercing his insides.

"K-kokichi? It's you?! It's you!" She cried out, trying to reach for him, the ropes stopping her. He looked confused, not knowing how she know his name, until...voice. Her voice was similiar. Like...Misumi. His childhood friend from when he used to live with his parents, Misumi. The girl that used to be in the little group he made, Misumi. The same one that he had video calls every Friday before he was kidnapped, Misumi. How could he forget!?

"M-misumi?" He mumbled, memories coming back to him. He still couldn't tell how much he forgot, his head felt like a mess, why did that happen? How did that happen? What was wrong with him?

"Kokichi! I k-knew you were alive, I knew it! I told them, I told them but they didn't listen, no one except-!" She was cut off by Tsumugi covering her mouth with her hand, glaring at the girl. 

"This whole reunion is really sweet, but we don't have the whole day for this, do we?" She smiled, stepping away from Misumi. She walked up to Kokichi, going behind him. She slowly helped him stand up, his legs wobbly after not being used for a long time. 

"Right, great! Come on, stop shaking so much, I need you to be able to stand on your own" Said Shirogane, letting go of Ouma. He almost fell, not used to not being dragged or even getting off the cold floor at this point. He took a deep breath, trying to keep balance.

"Good boy! Now, I'm going to explain the rules, okay? I better not hear any of you interrupting me or it's not going to end well" She smiled, reaching for something under her long skirt. Kokichi watched as she slowly pulled something out, now staring at...a gun. She was holding a gun. "It's simple, as soon as it's done aaaaall the pain will be gone! No more torture, no more cold cell, no more starving, no more punishments. You're not going to get hurt anymore. You would like that, right puppy?" 

"...yes" He said quietly, gulping. He knew something was off, he knew he should trust her, but he didn't want to go through all of this again. He let her continue whispering into his ear, both of her hands placed on his shoulders.

"I just need you to do one thing for me. Prove yourself, show me how good you are. Easy, right? It sure will be easy for someone who listens so well!" She slid one of her hands holding the gun off his shoulder, going down, reaching for his right hand. She slowly slipped the weapon into it, letting him hold it, her hand tightly gripping his. "Just shoot one of them"

"W-what!?" The blonde girl, the one who stayed quiet before, yelled, trembling. The other one, Misumi, was still looking at Ouma, terrified. 

"He won't do that! He would never!" She assured, trying to calm her down. She knew Ouma for so long, he wouldn't hurt a fly. He hated killing or any type of violence. She knew his so well, so why...why was he acting so weird? He shouldn't be acting like this. "Kokichi, please, I know you would never do that!"

"I..." He couldn't force himself to say anything. His mouth felt dry, Tsumugi's touch was uncomfortable but warm, he hated the way he was started at. He couldn't think straight, why did he have so much problems with thinking? He was good at making decisions, he always was, that's why he used to be the leader in his small friend group he had as a kid. It was a small group, mostly including kids of the maids that worked for his parents, but still. He was always confident and full of energy and now? He felt like the opposite. He didn't know what to do at all.

"Come on, I know you can do it. Just pick one" She squezed his hand tighter, pulling it up, pointing the gun at the wall between the two victims.

"Kokichi don't! Stop it! Don't listen to her!" Misumi pleaded, tears gathering in her eyes. The girl next to her was trying to somehow break the ropes holding her, clearly panicked. 

"Ouma...if you don't make your decision soon, I might just play with them both myself. Imagine if I did the same things to them that I did to you. Can you imagine how much that would hurt? Do you want them to end up like that? Just because you aren't obedient?" Tsumugi threatened, her nails digging into Kokichi's skin. 

What was he supposed to do? He obviously didn't want neither of them to get hurt, but he didn't have a choice. They would die no matter what he does. Well, at least one of them. He could save one person, but at the same time he would have to sacrifice another. It wasn't fair, was it? Who was he to make that choice? He couldn't just decide who deserves to live more. Why was he shaking so much? The past him wouldn't shake, past him would just come up with a plan, act cocky, somehow save everyone. When did he got so pathetic? Misumi must be disappointed in him. The rest of Dice would be to, of course they would. But they didn't deserve to die, his friend didn't deserve to die. The other one? He didn't knew her, she was just a stranger. But what if she had family waiting for her? She was someone's daughter, someone's friend, someone's coworker, maybe even someone's lover. How could he take her away from them? 

"Tik, tok, tik, tok, we don't have much time! Didn't think it will take you so long! Can't you do even that? You're constantly being a disappointment, you know?" Shirogane groaned, letting go of him. He still held the gun pointed at the wall, uneable to move. Was it because of fear? Or because he felt like she wanted him to stay in place?

"I don't know what he ever saw in you. You're not strong, not smart, you're nothing. I did call you a dog, but honestly? Even a dog can do more than you" She sighned, crossing her arms. 

"Stop it..." Ouma tried to ignore her, closing his eyes shut. He didn't want to hear her, he just wanted to pretend she wasn't there.

"You can't do anything right. They will both die painfully and it's all your fault, you know? How do you feel about that?" She continued. Misumi wanted to say something, but Missshift glared at her, quickly silencing the scared girl.

"Stop it" Kokichi repeated, his hand shaking. 

"If you think about it, you were already no one from the start. No influence, no powers, nothing about you was interesting. I think you are just...boring" 

He could take it anymore. He didn't know why, but this one specific word filled him with anger. He didn't know what he was doing, he felt like his body was being moved by someone else. All he could hear was a sudden banging noise and a scream. He opened his eyes, not knowing what was going on, until he looked forward, gasping.

The blonde girl was now dead on the floor, a big hole leaking blood placed on her forehead. Who did this? Did Tsumugi decided she's going to make a choice for him? No, she was still behind him, so who...

He looked at his hand. He still had a gun. A gun pointed in the place her head used to be before she fell down. A gun with a small string of smoke drifting into the air from the barrel. 

"You actually did it...you did it! Congratulations!" Tsumugi clapped, overjoyed. She pulled the confused boy closer, pressing his head into her chest, carrasing his hair. It felt nice, nicer than all the stress and hurt and pain he had to go through. And it's because he listened, right? No, what was he talking about? He couldn't think like this, he just killed someone. He killed someone. How could he do that? Why did he do that? 

"You did so well...oopsie, I think I forgot to mention twooo tiny little details!" She laughed, taking the weapon away from him. 

"What...what details?" He asked, trying to ignore the loud crying in the background. Was it Misami crying? Wait, Misomi? That's wasn't her name, was it? No, it wasn't Misemi, what was it? Why couldn't he remember again?

"Weeeell...that girl you just shot? That was your dear Kaito's close friend, Kaede Akamatsu!" She exclaimed, walking up to the corpse. She kicked it, rolling it towards Ouma, giving him a better look at the dead girl's face. 

Kaito's...friend?

Kaito. Kaito was important, right? He couldn't remember exactly who he was, but he knew he was important. He was his friend too, right? He was very important. And he..he did something bad to Kaito's friend.

He messed up.

"B-but you will let her go now, right?" He stuttered out, pointing at the sobbing girl curled up in the corner.

Tsumugi grinned, turning to him again.

"Oh, puppy...I never said I will let anyone go"

Kokichi froze, processing her words. He was forced to watch as Shirogane got closer to his screaming, horrified friend, pulling out a knife he didn't notice she had before. He could hear yells and sniffing, cries and begs for help. He could feel brown eyes staring at him with sadness, fear, anger. They knew. The eyes knew he failed. He wanted them gone. He listened to the awful sounds of flesh being cut, the smell of blood filling his nose. He watched everything, not moving, just standing in place. He didn't move even when the poor girl's decapitated head rolled to his feet, bumping into him.

He was never forced to pick who will die. He could pick who will die less painfully.

He could hear laughter. It wasn't the usuall one, the high pitched, annoying cackle. No, it sounded weird, not like the one before but still weirdly similiar. 

Was...he the one laughing?

He couldn't stop. Why would he stop? It was funny, wasn't it? Why was he even sad before? He did it. He just had to listen and beg good. It was so funny. The life slowly disappearing from the victims eyes when he killed her, the noises, the hope left in his heart crushed into tiny pieces until nothing was left. Is this what Mistress meant? Was this how despair felt like?

Why was it so...fun?

"You passed the test! That was amazing!" Tsumugi spinned around in her now blood stained clothes, giggling. "Kaito will loooove to see this!"

Ouma repeated her words quietly, addled. He kept thinking, his thoughts not buzzing in his head like before. He felt more empty, way more empty than before, but he didn't feel bad. He didn't feel the pain he felt before, he was free from it after so long. He didn't have weird memories replaying in his mind, everything seemed clear now, but...

...who was Kaito?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The more interesting part of the story is about to begin!  
> As always, any comments are really appreciated!


	14. Chapter 14

Remember when Kaito mentioned they didn't have any serious villian attacks since Ouma disappeared? 

He takes that back.

The Future Foundation building got attacked out of nowhere. What made it worse was that a lot of heroes were away at that time, which meant one of the only people able to take care of the situation were Shuichi, Maki and Kaito. They had no idea what caused the attack or what was the point, but it was their job to stop it. He recognised one of the villians at the scene, it was the same one he fought before, the girl in the mouse robot. He was still furious at her for what happened, for how she almost killed Ouma by pushing him off that building. He stormed at her, ready to attack.

And ended up in the dumpster. Again.

Did she really have to throw him in a dumpster every single time!? 

Why were they even attacked? It made no sense, something clearly wasn't right. They wouldn't bring so many robots just to mess with them, it had to be something important. But what would they want from them?

"Um...you need some help?" Asked Shuichi, turning his mecha towards Momota. He just shook his head, getting up by himself. He shuddered, taking the trash off his costume, relieved that at least this time it wasn't anything too gross. Well, he said that too soon because right after that he stepped into what looked like a rotten tomato. Great.

"Fuck, how many bots are left?" He said, walking up to Saihara. 

"10 more smaller robots, the main one and there's one unmoving on your right. Tried to get to it but got attacked by the others whenever I got close" Harukawa explained as she joined them, clearly tired from the fight. 

"Huh? Why?" Kaito looked confused, gazing at the said bot. It was just like the rest, nothing special about it, except it was, just as Maki said, unmoving. But why couldn't they get close to it?

"There could be something inside, that would explain why they are protecting it" She assumed, Shuichi nodding, thinking the same. 

"Like what?" Apollo turned back to her, scratching his neck. He couldn't help but still feel like something was not right, but decided to ignore it.

"Maybe a bomb?" Proposed Shuichi, unsure.

"No, it's too far away from the building, it wouldn't make sense" Stated Maki. She was right, the bot was too far away, if it was supposed to explode they would place it somewhere where it could actually do some demage. 

"Then what should we do?" Momota hummed, thinking. They could just ignore the robot, but what if it was something important? Or maybe the villians knew they will get suspicious and used it as a trap?

"M.cr, you are going to take care of the smaller bots. Apollo, you will check the unmoving one, make sure to stay quiet do the other hits don't see you while Shuichi is busy with them. If it's dangerous, just use portal and get away from it. I'm going to take down the big one" Artemis told both of them her plan, not leaving any time for them to protest before she rushed at the mechanic mouse, jumping high in the air and shooting it with her crossbow. It didn't cause much demage, but at least now their main enemy was distracted. Kaito gave Saihara thumbs up, silently wishing him luck. The boy sighned, driving his mecha back to the battlefield, shooting the smaller opponents and bringing them all closer to himself. Momota was worried it might be too much for his friend, but for now he was doing well.

Finally, after he made sure no one is looking at him, he quietly started moving towards the suspicious bot. It looked just like the rest, a big metal ball with spider looking legs, except unlike the others it was sitting on the ground. Kaito turned back to check if everything was still alright as he got closer. Maki seemed to be okay, currently dodging the metal tail by jumping and rolling on the ground, shooting the attacker whenever she had a chance. Saihara was also doing a pretty good job. The bullets from the gun built in his mecha weren't good enough to completely destroy the enemies, but they worked well when it came to holding them back, constantly pushing them away whenever they got too close. 

He took another few steps, eventually getting to his destination. He looked around, but he couldn't see anything too suspicious except for, of course, the robot. He focused his gaze on it, carefully looking for any clues. It looked normal, nothing out of ordinary. Momota gently got off the ground, flying up, checking the top. Just as he thought, it also had a hatch, similiar to the rest. He reached to open it, his guts telling him there was something important inside, but before he could even grab the handle, another thing cought his attention.

Kaede Akamatsu, the Future Foundation's secretary, one of his really close friends, walked out of the building. All the employees were supposed to stay inside for safety reasons, but she acted like nothing was happening. Kaito could barely see that she was holding something in both her right and left hand, but she was too far away for him to tell what exactly. She stepped past all the robots, Harukawa and Shuichi unable to stop her because of the fight. They yelled at her to go back, but she didn't even stop or turn their way. Kaede just continued walking, until she was in front of Momota, smiling.

"Kaede!? What the hell are you doing here!? It's dangerous!" He yelled, getting back on the ground, trying to get to her, until she suddenly gripped tighter on one of the things she was holding, aiming it at his face.

It was a gun.

"K-kaede!?" Apollo looked confused, not understanding what was happening. Why was she holding a weapon? Was she threatening to shoot him? But why? Akamatsu would never do something like this, right? What was going on?

"Oh, Apollo..." She started laughing, giggles slipping from her mouth. They didn't sound like the usual and sweet noises she made when she was amused. They didn't sound like her at all. Her voice just changed out of nowhere, but it was still weirdly familiar. 

Then it happened.

Still laughing, she started changing. Her hair slowly started going from blond to black, just like her legs and arms, starting from her fingertips and shoes and going up, covering her body with dark, thick liquid. She disappeared under it, now standing in front of slightly dumbfolded Kaito as a black mass. It started bulging and changing shape, getting taller and slimmer. After that stopped, the liquid seemed to just fell off, vanishing in the air.

That's when Momota finally realised who was standing in front of him.

Missshift, the leader of Team Danganronpa, one of the most dangerous villians, was grinning at him. 

"I must say, I expected more interesting reaction, you know? I practiced my reveal for so long!" She chuckled, still aiming the gun at him. Artemis tries to ran at her, trying to protect Kaito, but forgot about her other enemy, resulting in her getting hit by the mouse's tail. She was sent flying at the wall, hitting it with a painful groan.

"Ma- Artemis!" Momota yelled, scared that something bad happened to her.

"Come on, ugh, I didn't plan this just for you to ignore me now!" Missshift huffed, annoyed. "I played my role for so long and you didn't even gasp! Rude!"

"What do you mean?" He looked back at her, gulping.

"Oh? Well, you're not that good of a friend if you didn't notice that she has been missing aaaaall this time! I pretended to be this stupid blonde girl for what? Two months? Three? Four? None of you idiots had a clue!" 

"W-what? What did you do to real Kaede!?" Kaito's eyes widened as he squized his fists. He was furious, he couldn't believe she tricked them so easly. They had been looking for the imposter for so long only for her to be right in front of them the whole time. 

"Oh? I kept her, got the informations I needed, and then disposed her after she stopped being usefull. Or, well, it wasn't really me who did the last part, but you get what I mean" She smirked. Momota froze, analysing her words.

Kaede was...dead?

His friend was dead. He not only did he let one of people he cared about the most go missing, he also let the other one die. He couldn't even tell someone else was replacing them for so long. How could he not notice!? 

"I thought I made it pretty obvious, I almost wanted you to find out! It would make the story more interesting, you know? I thought that me being away all the time and lying about having a dog would be a biiig red flag, but I guess you really are as dumb as they say you ar-" She couldn't finish before Apollo used portal, quickly getting closer to her and punching her right in the face. She yelped, fell on the ground and dropped the other thing she was holding. It looked like a small suitcase with a lock on it.

"Oops, I guess I got distracted. Well..." She got up as fast as she could, shooting from her gun right at Kaito. He barely missed the bullet by flying up. She kept shooting, trying to get closer to the suitcase. Momota knew it had to be something important. He used a portal again, under Tsumugi, but she noticed it and jumped back before she could fall in. Luckily she didn't notice the other one he made right behind her and fell in it, dropping next to the unmoving robot. Kaito ran and grabbed the case, holding it close. 

"Apollo! I just got a message from the others, don't let her get the suitcase back!" Saihara yelled from his spot. He typed something on the keyboard inside of his mecha, sending it to Momota, trying to fight the other bots at the same time. Kaito watched as a notification appeared in his goggles, clicking on it to see what it was. 

Future Foundation informed them that something has been stolen from the office while they were busy outside.

Well, not just something.

The stolen item was the Junko Enoshima Program.

It was a small pendrive the famous criminal, Junko Enoshima herself, made in case she was ever going to die, which of course happened. The former, first leader of Team Danganronpa left all the informations that she could on it, most of which were coded and unable for them to decipher. Rumors said it included instructions on how to get to and activate Monokuma, the machine she was working on before her life ended. The machine was supposed to help her eliminate the heroes once for all, letting her drown the world in never ending despair. Makoto Naegi, head of Future Foundation, stopped her before that happened, finding the pendrive and locking it up in a safe with high security, keeping it from ever getting into wrong hands. 

It all made sense. Well, almost all.

The impostor, the lack of serious attacks for a long time, the situation today. They wanted to steal it and almost got away with it.

"Did you figure it out? Took you long enough" Shirogane was now on top of the robot, near the hatch. She was looking down at Momota, but even though he had the case she needed, she looked nowhere close to defeated. 

"You were trying to get it all this time, didn't you?" He hissed, holding the suitcase tighter than before.

"Of course! And I have to say, you getting so depressed and distracted really helped! Just like I thought, my plan was perfect!" She cackled.

"Wait, so you..." Momota started at her, mouth wide opened. She didn't mean it like that, right? There's no way it was true. 

"Oh, do I really have to spell it out for you? I was the one who took your little boy-toy!" 

Apollo was pretty sure that if he wasn't forced to protect the case, he would throw himself at her and squize his hands around her throat. He was looking for Ouma for so long only for her to have him this whole time? He was left with a criminal like her for so long? What did she do to him? Was he okay? 

"I'm sure you have sooooo many questions, so...why don't you ask him?" She smiled, tugging on the handle of the hatch. It opened, allowing her to reach inside and drag something out of it. 

Someone.

Kokichi, covered with long, dark cloth with a hood was now standing on top of the robot next to Missshift. He was looking down, not allowing Kaito to see his face, but he could still tell that it was him. The height, the hair, it had to be him. 

Kokichi Ouma was alive. 

"Kokichi!" Kaito cried out, almost dropping the item he was holding just to reach for him. Tusmugi grinned, pressing the boy closer to herself, holding a gun close to his head.

"Well, Apollo, how about we make a deal~?" She hummed, her right arm wrapped tightly around Ouma. 

"Don't you dare hurt him!" He looked at her, shaking with anger.

"Oh, I won't. All you have to do is give me the pendrive and I'm going to let go of him!" She grinned, gun pressing harder against Ouma's head.

Momota knew what he had to do. Giving her access to Junko Enoshima Program was extremely dangerous, but...they could steal it from her later, right? Kokichi was here. Kokichi was finally here. He could finally see him, hug him, touch him to make sure that he's really there. He could cry and tell him how sorry he was, how he kept looking for him, how much it hurt him to be away from him. He could finally look him in the eyes, finally tell him how he feels, finally do what he couldn't do before, when they last saw eachother. 

He couldn't lose him again.

"Don't give it to her you idiot!" He could hear someone yelling, he wasn't sure if it was Maki or Shuichi. He didn't care. He put the arm holding the suitcase up, creating a portal and dropping it. The suitcase landed right next to Tsumugi. She snatched it quickly, squeling happily, almost hugging it.

"Ah! Working with you is just lovely!" She giggled, carassing the case with her fingers.

"I gave you what you wanted, now let Kichi go." Kaito glared at her, ready to attack any moment if she tried to trick him.

"Oh, well, I guess you deserve it" She took the gun away and pushed the boy off the robot, causing him to fall on the ground. 

"Kichi!" Kaito yelled, smiling, running towards him. He waited so long, so long just to see his face again. He let the tears from his eyes slip down, not carring about keeping his manly persona up. Nothing except for Ouma mattered right now. He felt like it was all happening in slow motion. He was so close yet so far from him, his arms spread widely, ready to hug the smaller boy and never let him go again. He would finally gently touch his face, finally let the words he has been holding on for so long spill, he would finally press their faces together and kiss him instead of being a coward. He was already forming a plan in his head for all the things they could to together. He would let Kokichi move in with him, to his house, this way he could be more safe. They could share a bed, cuddle every single night before falling asleep. They could eat breakfasts and dinners together and laugh at some unfunny shows in television. He would ask him out on an actual date, maybe take him to a fancy restaurant, or to cinema, or just for a simple walk in a park. They could hold hands, he would lent the other boy his jacket or sweater if he got cold. 

They could have a happy domestic life together. 

Could.

But it would not happen.

As soon as his fingers touched Ouma, he felt a hard kick. Right on his face. 

He fell back, confused, groaning from pain.

What the hell happened?

He looked up at the boy he loved so much and gasped.

Ouma threw the cloth covering him off, letting Kaito see the outfit he didn't recognize. Kokichi was wearing a corset looking top, uncovering his stomach, split on two different colours- purple and...grey? Lavender? He wasn't able to tell exactly. Long gloves and long stocking boots covered most of his arms and legs, split on colours just like the top. He was also wearing shorts (way too short shorts, in Kaito's opinion), of course, just like the rest, split im two different colours. His neck was adored by a black, jester looking collar, with pompoms at the end of each of the fabric triangles. His eyes were covered with a mask, shaped like two rhombuses, one of them purple and the second one lavender.

It was still Ouma, just...different Ouma.

"I will be so kind to introduce you to my pet, brand new villian, an ultimate reason of your soon downfall! Everyone, please welcome, the one and only....Dice!" She said loudly, laughing. Confetti shot from the robot as soon as she stopped talking, making the whole thing seem even more theatrical. Kaito would normally cringe at how stupid it was, but right now he was busy staring at Kokichi in shock.

Dice? Villian? No, Ouma wasn't bad, he wasn't a criminal, he couldn't...

"Well, it was nice to play with you all, but I'm afraid we need to go! Dice, puppy, finish the job~" Said Missshift, waving at Kaito before jumping inside of the robot. 

Before Apollo could react, he got served another kick in the face. And another one. And another. He was grabbed by the hair, forced to move his head up, staring right at Ouma, before the boy bashed his head into the ground. Black spots danced in his eyes, he was struggling to keep councious. He could hear muffled yells and screams from the background, but he wasn't able to tell what they were saying. Last thing he saw was Dice, Kokichi, his friend and the man he fell for, smirking before punching him one last time, causing him to pass out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Go check riolu.kakyoku on Instagram for drawings of Dice's costium they are absolutely amazing


	15. Chapter 15

"It worked! It worked, it worked, it worked!" Tsumugi jumped around the base, holding the suitcase close, giggling. Ouma was standing not too far away from her, leaning his back on the wall, arms crossed. He wasn't ordered to move or go somewhere else, so he decided to stay with her. He didn't want to risk doing something wrong, especially not in front of her. 

Today was his first mission, which ended with success. It wasn't too complicated, he repeated the plan many times before. Stay in the robot, stand next to Mistress after she drags him out, reveal himself and knock Apollo out so he won't follow them on their way back. Simple. He did everything perfectly, and he couldn't lie, he enjoyed the feeling of being so strong, having so much power over someone. He liked watching the hero's face as he kicked and punched him, something was telling him that's exactly what he deserved. He was slightly confused by the fact his enemy seemed to know his name and even acted like he knows him, but decided not too ask or even think about it too much. Missshift told him to not question anything and he listened to her.

Before the mission, he had been busy training. After the test he passed by killing Kaede Akamatsu, the Future Foundation secretary, his life in the dark cold cell ended. He couldn't remember much from it, to his suprise, almost like a big part of his memory was missing, but it didn't bother him. He didn't need that knowledge now. Mistress offered him a small room with an actual bed, which meant no more sleeping on the floor. She made sure he ate and drank a lot, telling him he needed to regain energy for the "next step". He could finally take a shower, finally change into something that wasn't a pair of ripped, bloody, dirty clothes. 

He begun his training, learning how to use different types of weapons. Guns, knives, some more complicated technology he didn't know the name of, bows, he was required to learn how to use every single one of them. His personal favourite turned out to be a big hammer eirha long handle. Except for that, he also had to learn how to fight with his fists, do basic martial arts and gymnastics. For some reason the last two came to him almost natural, as if he knew them before, but of course, he couldn't remember why. It took a while, but with how much he was forced and pressured he grasped the hang of them faster than he would normally. 

Shirogane seemed pleased with that.

She prepared a costume for him, making sure it covered all the scars and still not fully healed wounds he had. Tsumugi said she didn't like looking at them and that they "messed up her work", so he also agreed on keeping them covered. It took him a while to get used to wearing long gloves, but he didn't complain. The outfit he got wasn't the most comfortable, but it also wasn't terrible. He didn't think he ever wore something so revealing before, but maybe that's just because he couldn't remember. The colours looked nice on him, he had to admit. 

Whenever he wasn't training, he could be found by Tsumugi's side. He followed her everywhere, like a lost puppy, constantly doing whatever she wanted. He couldn't help it, he felt the need to listen to her, he owned her that, right? It's thanks to her he wasn't weak anymore. It's thanks to her that he wasn't hurt anymore. She gave him so much, tought him so much, it was only normal for him to want to somehow repay for her kindness. Before, he would probably never do something like that, never feel so dependent on her, never let her treat him like that. But now? He didn't mind. He got used to her dehumanizing him, treating him like a toy, like a dog, a fun project she could work on. She was the only one who gave him any signs of affection, even if it was something as humiliating as petting. 

Mistress was all he had, right?

He needed to be good and do what she wanted, or else he would lose that. 

"You did such a good job today! Good boy!" Missshift grinned, coming up to him, scratching him behind his ear. He would absolutely hate it if anyone else decided to do this to him, but it was Shirogane, so it way okay, right? He accepted it, leaning into her touch.

"The way you bashed his head into the ground at the end!? Fantastic! Ah, he must be so in shock right now! Imagine all the despair!" She drooled slightly, the scenarios of Momota breaking down playing in her mind. Ouma agreed with her, watching the hope disappearing from the superhero's eyes was pretty amusing.

"I did my job well, right Mistress?" He flashed her a big smile, chuckling. She responded with a nod and a pat on his head. Kokichi wasn't sure if she was exactly proud, but he liked to think she was. He wanted to make her proud.

"Shit, I was looking for you everywhere! Boss, aren't you a little too busy with your new fucktoy?" A female voice suddenly interrupted the two of them. A girl with long, strawberry blonde hair tied in a high pony tail with goggles on top of her head was glaring at them, annoyed expression written all over her face. She was wearing what looked like a pink jumpsuit with a diamond shaped hole in the middle, showing off part of her stomach and breasts. The costume also included a lot of belts with small bags strapped to them, possibly being used as pockets. She also had fingerless black gloves, matching with her knee-high boots. 

"Ah, Iruma, you're here. Don't call our dear Dice a "fucktoy", could you?" Shirogane returned her glare, taking her hands off of Ouma. 

"What else is he, then? That twink does nothing except clinging to you!" She groaned, stepping inside, closing the door behind her. She sat in front of a long table in the middle of the room, crossing her legs.

"My puppy is a new addition to our team, and trust me, today he did a way more better job than you" Missshift snickered. Miu didn't react well, standing up and hitting her fist against the table.

"Come fucking on! I had to fight with motherfucking Artemis AND I actually injured that bitch! I did a good job you big boobed scank! So shut the fuck up and-" She couldn't finish, all because someone grabbed both of her arms from behind, pushing her on the table, restraining her. She huffed furiously, trying to kick whoever touched her, but it didn't seem to work at all.

"Aw, Dice, you attacked her for raising her voice at me? Who's my good boy!?" Tsumugi grinned even more, clapping happily because of how well behaved (or more like well trained) Kokichi was. 

"Is this some fucking pet play shit? Kinky" Iruma cackled, causing Ouma to press her even harder to the table, her forehead hitting loudly against the wood.

"Puppy, let her go" Ordered Shirogane, still delighted by the situation. The boy listened to her, quickly letting go of the other woman and backing off. 

"Iruma, I called you here for a reason. I need you to join the rest of our decoding team and work on the Junko Program. I want it translated as soon as possible" She explained, finally opening the suitcase. Inside of it was a carefully placed black and white pendrive with a red symbol on it, the Team Danganronpa sign. She took it out, observing it for a while, before handing it to the other girl.

"I was supposed to fix the other fucking robots first!" Yelled Miu, irritated.

"You will fix your little machines later. If you don't take care of it now I will command Dice to personally escort you there" Said Missshift, staring at Iruma with stone cold eyes. The girl shivered, nodding quickly a few times before standing up once again and leaving as fast as she could, heading to their lab. 

"Dice, come with me" Tsumugi also started walking out of the room, but headed in the opposite direction than Miu did. She took slow steps through the long, dark hallway. It reminded Ouma of the one in his old cell, except it lacked the dust and mold growing on some of the walls. He remembered some of the tortures he was forced to go through, all the pain he recieved. He wasn't angry at his Mistress. She did what she had to do, he was thankful for it. He felt better this way, he liked finally being usefull to someone.

Missshift stopped, leading him on what looked like an inside building balcony. From there, he had a perfect view of the main hall of their base. He wasn't allowed to be here before, the only places he visited for now was the basement and training area. The whole building seemed huge, he could see tons of people passing eachother and talking. Some of them wore simple black suits, others had white scientists coats, a few individuals were dressed in what looked like villian costumes. He wondered if the Future Foundation knew how big Team DR actually was. It wasn't just a criminal group, what was standing before him was a huge agency, hidden from the rest of the society. 

"It's your new home, Dice. Officially welcome to Team Danganronpa~" She whispered, placing her hands on his shoulder, just like she did during his test long time ago. Before, he would probably tremble, wish for her to get away. Now? It was okay. It was all the way it should be. The past him was a meaningless civilian with no purpose in life. Tsumugi opened a new door in front of him, made him stronger, tought him so many things. He owned her everything, he would be nothing without her. 

She was his savior, wasn't she?

And he would serve her till the day he dies, with no regrets.


	16. Chapter 16

He didn't know how much time passed since he woke up in the medical wing. His head felt like it was going to split on half with how much it hurt. He tried to go back to sleep, but obviously couldn't. What the hell did even happen to him? Last thing he remembered were the robots arriving in front of the office, him, Maki and Shuichi fighting and...

Kokichi.

He saw Kokichi. His Kokichi. He knew it was him, we would recognize him anywhere. He was so close, so damn close. He could finally see him, finally make sure he wasn't dead like everyone else told him. He was so sure he would take him in his arms and never let anyone take him again but he...he failed. Once again failed. He got kicked in the face, beaten up, he couldn't say a word to him. Couldn't tell him to stop, he was too shocked at the moment to do anything. He passed out, didn't he? What happened after that?

He immediately almost jumped out of the bed, sitting up, looking around in panic. Where was Ouma? Was he okay? Did he get hurt? Oh god what if he got hurt? 

"Kaito?" Shuichi muttered from the seat next to his friend's bed. He wanted to stay with him but accidentaly fell asleep, now waken up by the noise Momota made. He yawned, rubbing his eyes with his fist.

"Shuichi? What happened, where am I, what-" He tried to stand up, confused by the whole situation. Saihara sighned and pushed him back on the bed, holding his arm. 

"You shouldn't move too much, calm down" He explained, as calmly as he could, looking at Kaito. 

"But I need to go back there, Ouma is-"

"Ouma isn't there. He went back with Missshift. I'm sorry" The blue haired boy turned his gaze away, not wanting to see how hurt the other man looked. He knew how much Kokichi meant to him, he understood how hard all of this must have been to him. Kaito made the wrong choice, he didn't listen and let the villains get their hands on one of the most dangerous items they possesed, but he wasn't angry at him. He could never be. Kaito was under a lot of pressure and obviously had no idea what was going to happen, he couldn't blame him. Although other people didn't really share his opinion on that...

"What!? Why did you let them take him!?" Momota yelled, eyes widened. How could they just let them get away!? He waited so long, looked for so long, worried for so long, finally saw him after so long, and now he just...wasn't here. Again. He lost him again. He lost Kichi again. 

"We didn't 'let them take him', he went with them by himself" Shuichi sat down, nervously playing with his fingers. He didn't want to make his friend angry, but he wasn't sure how to exactly help him. 

"No, he wouldn't do that! He is being forced! I know it!" Kaito protested. He knew Ouma more than they did, he wouldn't do that. They did something to him, they threatened him or forced him, he knew it, it had to be it. He wasn't a criminal, wasn't a villain, wasn't a bad person. 

"Kaito. I'm sorry to tell you this, but I'm not lying" Saihara reached to grab his hand but backed off, deciding it's a bad idea. He wouldn't want to make him feel worse.

"No! He-!"

"Shut up." 

Another voice joined in their conversation, sounding slightly...angry. Maki was standing in the entrance, a bandage wrapped tightly around her chest. She seemed to be in pain, he guessed she got injured when the mouse robot threw her on the building. Did she break anything? No, she probably wouldn't be standing if she did. 

"Maki, don't be too harsh to him" Shuichi mumbled, shivering when she glared at him. It was not going to end well.

Harukawa started walking towards the hospital bed Momota was on, her boots clickling against the floor. She got closer, pushing Saihara away. He stumbled but didn't fall on the floor, thankfully. She then grabbed Apollo by the shirt, pulling him closer. He didn't even notice he was in his normal clothes now, a simple black shirt and sweatpants. He wondered who changed him, but maybe it was best to not know, that would be embarrassing. While he was thinking Maki was still holding him, staring daggers into him. It lasted for a really awkward while, before the silence was finally broke by the girl.

She slapped Kaito right across the face.

Saihara gasped and rushed to them as soon as it happened, pulling Maki away, her hand finally letting go of Kaito's shirt. The man in the bed touched his now red cheek, not sure what just happened. Shuichi was asking, almost pleading Artemis to calm down and give Momota some space. She huffed at him and argued about something, but Kaito wasn't too focused on their conversation. He hissed in pain when he pressed his hand to his face too hard. Is it going to bruise? Probably, she really hit him hard.

"What...what was that for?" He asked after a while, stopping his two friends from yelling at eachother.

"Are you serious!?" She snapped at him, turning his way again. "You idiot!"

"Why are you so angry at me?" He questioned again, just making her more furious.

"You messed up the whole mission! All you had to do was keep that suitcase and you couldn't do even that! Do you realise how important that was!?" She shouted, clenching her fists, fingers tightly curled up, almost like she was about to punch him again. 

"I know it was important, but-"

"But? But!? Our lives depend on that thing! Everyone's lives do! If Team Danganronpa somehow deciphers it we won't stand a chance against them! Did that go through your stupid head or were you too busy dreaming about that stupid little shit!?" Saihara had to hold her back again, not wanting Momota to get even more hurt. She struggled, telling him to let her go, but soon got tired and stopped. The injury on her back really drained her from energy, even though she wouldn't admit that in front of anyone.

"Don't call him that! His safety was more important than that stupid thing! We can just get it back!" He exclaimed, positive it won't be too hard. Both of the other people in the room went quiet, staring at him. Shuichi wanted to say something, but Harukawa stopped him, silencing him with her own words.

"Just get it back? We don't know where their base is, don't know how many people they have, don't know what to expect. We don't have the right weapons and need to recover from the fight. Even if, most heroes are away and won't be going back here for a long time because of what Missshift did while she was pretending to be Akamatsu. They planned all of this for a long time. We can't win with them. Not this time." She said coldly, crossing her arms. 

Kaito felt his heart beating faster, the nervousness overtaking his body. He really didn't think about that, did he? But it's not like he had a choice back then, right?

"But...but Kichi-" 

"She wouldn't shoot him, you idiot, he is working with them. It was a trap and you fell right into it!" Maki groaned, raising her voice again.

"He is not working with them! They probably tricked him or something, shit, I don't know!" He gripped on his hair, tugging. Shuichi looked at him, worried, trying to fix the situation, let them both take a breath and talk it out normally, but he was interrupted by Artemis.

"Even if you didn't know, you could just use a portal or take him by yourself! You could do so many things and instead you just gave up!" 

"I didn't give up, I just couldn't risk letting him get hurt!" He answered loudly, staring at the floor. 

"You-!"

"Both of you shut up!" Saihara finally yelled out, stopping them. They turned their heads towards him in shock. Him acting like this wasn't the most...typical thing to witness.

"Maki. Go back to the dining area, you promised me you will eat something. Kaito. Go back to sleep, you need to rest properly. Screaming at eachother won't make anything better so just stop" He sighned, rubbing his temple. They looked away and nodded, the girl leaving without a word. Momota let go of his hair, laying back down, pressing his face into his hands.

"We will talk later. We need to plan out what to do, collect informations and...talk what to do with Kaede" Saihara said the last part quietly, with sadness in his voice. Kaito knew how close he was with her, he didn't think how hurt he must be to know she was dead. He was too focused on his problem to look at his friend. 

"Shuichi, I'm sorry-"

"Don't. It's okay. I just...we should organize a funeral. I know she was probably dead for a long time now, but...that's the least we can do" He said, wiping the single year gathering in his eye away. Momota wasn't sure what to say, he didn't think he ever saw the other boy acting like this. Usually when he was hurt or felt bad he would talk about it, sometimes cry on his shoulder, but now? He didn't. He simply walked away, just like Maki, throwing him a quick "goodbye" and "please rest" before closing the door.

He really messed up, didn't he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, as always all comments are really appreciated!


	17. Chapter 17

Ouma jumped back, rolled on the ground and stood up again, grabbing one of the knives and throwing it with as much force as he could. It stabbed right into the training bot's face, automatically shutting it down.

That was his new record, wasn't it?

Exactly 43 seconds, his last score was 56. The training robots weren't too hard to fight against, but they did give him some trouble when he was first starting off. He just had to learn to always aim for the head, that made everything easier. Kinda like with humans. He wondered how it would feel to crack someone's skull open, smash it, stab something right through their brain. Was that a little gruesome? Probably. Did he care? No.

He decided to try again, restarting the training program. This time he threw his knives away, choosing to fight with no weapons. He wasn't too good when it came to punching, his arms weren't as strong as he would like them to be. However, the muscles in his legs were doing suprisingly well. He could run faster than most people he compared himself to and could jump pretty high. He used that to his advantage, using his gymnastics skills mixed with strong legs to serve solid kicks. He took a deep breath, getting himself ready.

Another robot appeared from the metal door at the end of the room, that's where most of them were stored. It wasn't too special, a simple practice tool, not dangerous enough to kill him.

Probably.

He ran, dodging the laser bullets that were being shot at him. They couldn't seriously injure him but they did leave a pretty nasty burns. He dropped on the ground, sliding right between the machine's legs. As soon as he was behind it, he stood up and kicked it. The robot fell, giving him the opportunity to get on top of it, pining it to the ground with his thighs. He quickly found the specific spot on the neck, a small hatch, and opened it, practically ripping the cables inside of it off. He couldn't just punch it in the face until it broke, his fists wouldn't do well against the metal, so it was better to just destroy the power cord. The bot, just like the other one before, shut down, ending the training sequence.

Kokichi, even though the fight was over, didn't relax even a bit. He tensed up even more, all because of the clapping sound suddenly breaking the silence.

"Well, can't lie, that was pretty impressive" An unfamiliar voice said, Ouma's head snapping into it's direction.

A man his age (maybe slightly older) was leaning against the wall, watching him. He had green, quite messy hair. His outfit was a bit...revealing, just like Dice's. He was wearing a one piece costume turtleneck without sleeves. It was built slightly like a swimsuit, a dark green swimsuit, with two cut out spaces on his waist. He also had fingerless gloves covering only half oh his arms, with something similiar to a shawl wrapped below his shoulders made out of...plants? Leaves? Whatever it was. The whole costume was completed with a pair of simple green boots.

He was ready to attack him, already assuming he might be an enemy, but the man stopped him, sending a small towards him.

"Don't worry, I'm not a bad guy. Well, technically am, but you get what I mean" he chuckled, rubbing his neck. "My name is Rantaro Amami, but people here call me Ceres" 

"Ceres?" He repeated, still not sure if he can trust the weird stranger.

"You know, Ceres, like the Roman goddess. Patron of growing plants and crops." Explained Amami, reaching his hand out to the other boy. Ouma jumped back at first, thinking he way trying to attack, but then realised he was just trying to shake his hand. 

"What's up with so many people using god's names and shit? Is this like a trend or something? Pretty boring" He huffed, rolling his eyes, deciding not to accept it. Just in case.

"I guess they just sound cool. You're Dice, right? I only came back here yesterday but I already heard quite a lot about you" He said, stepping closer. 

"So what?" Kokichi backed off slightly, not wanting to be too close to him. He didn't really spend time alone with anyone except Tsumugi, he wasn't sure if he was even allowed to. Could he trust this person? What if he was trying to hurt him? Should he attack?

"Hey, it's okay, no need to be nervous. What's your name?" Rantaro asked calmly, not making any more steps. He decided it would be the best to keep some distance for now, maybe he could come closer once the other boy gets used to him, kinda like with a dog. Except this dog could probably kill him if he wasn't careful enough.

"You know how I'm called, you said it before" He answered coldly, bending down to pick up the knives he threw while training. He still kept one eye opened on the guy, making sure he wasn't doing anything suspicious.

"I meant you're real name, little dude" He smiled once again.

"It's not like you need it for anything" Ouma glared at him, picking up the last weapon from the floor and carring them to the right shelf. Amami followed him, still staying a few meters away.

"It would be nice to just answer, you know? I heard most people talking about you like you're some emotionless monster, but I don't think that's true" He said, handing him one of the knives he missed. Kokichi blinked a few times before snatching it from him, placing it with the rest.

"Me? A monster? That's soooo mean, I might just cry!" Dice giggled, turning towards Rantaro. 

"See? Being an empty prick just doesn't fit you, you look more like a jokester type of guy" Ceres smirked, winking at him.

"Answering that question from earlier, my name is so absolutely amazing and unique that I'm not sure I can just say it to some pervert like you!" Ouma pouted, trying not to snicker.

"Huh? A pervert?" Amami brought his hand to his chin, holding it in confusion.

"Watching me train from the shadows like some kind of creep? You're tooootally a pervert!" Kokichi shivered, sticking out his tongue in a pretended disgust.

"Hah, well, I guess that wasn't the best first impression" Ceres laughed awkwardly, still looking at the smaller boy.

"I'm starting to get bored so I guess I can just tell you. I'm Kokichi Ouma! I think!" He said, theatrically bowing down.

"You think?" Amami asked, unsure what he meant.

"I miiight not exactly remember, that's just what Mistress told me" He shrugged, his attention now focused more on the stash with daggers. Which one would be the funniest to play with? The curvy one?

"Mistress?" Rantaro questioned, addled. 

"Huh? You know, Mistress Missshift. Do you not call her that?" He tilted his head, puzzled. He was convinced that most people refer to Shirogane like that. She ordered him to call her that, right? Why would she not tell others to do the same? That was weird. "But, but, but! More important stuff- what are you doing here?"

"Ah, I shouldn't be suprised you don't know. I work for Team DR, I was placed in the other city but got brought back since things here got more...interesting, if I can call it that. I was also told I will be working with you a lot so I decided to pay you a visit" The green haired boy clarified. It made sense, since they stole the Junko Enoshima Program Future Foundation has been way more focused on them than before, they needed more people who would be able to fight. 

"And what can you even do, hm? You don't look like a fighter" Ouma grinned, grabbing one of the daggers he was looking at earlier and spinning it in his hand.

"I could say the same about you, little guy. But if you want, I can just show you. That would be more compelling, wouldn't it?" He chuckled, walking to the center of the room. Dice already knew what he implied, he wanted to present his abilities in a fight. He skipped to the main training area with him, excited to finally fight with someone that isn't a robot.

They both got to the right spots, nodded, and begun the fight.

Kokichi wasted no time, rushing at him, the weapon clutched tightly in his hand. Ceres didn't look bothered at all, he simply dodged Ouma's attempt to stab him, stepping away. He tried to attack him again, but Rantaro just made another dodge, not even defending himself if any way. Dice lost his focus, trying to think what his opponent was doing, confused by his actions. That's where he made a mistake.

Something suddenly grabbed his ankle, lifting him high up into the air. He struggled, trying to wiggle himself out of whatever was holding him, but he was stuck. He tried to locate the source of his failure and that's exactly when he first saw it.

A vine was growing out of Amami's back and it was the one responsible for his current situation. The man smiled, dropping him on the ground after a while. He walked up to him, offering a hand to help Dice lift himself up. Kokichi rejected it, standing up by himself, angry that he lost so easly.

"Plant powers? Seriously? What are you, a cheap version of Poison Ivy?" He joked, giggling.

"Very funny, bootleg Harley Quinn" Rantaro bit back, both of them laughing while the vine slowly slid back into his body. "I can grow plants out of, well, myself. It's not the coolest superpower, but I would say I am enjoying it a lot"

"It's pretty la-"

"Puppy? What are you doing here?" Someone suddenly interrupted his sentence, stepping into the training room. Ouma knew exactly who it was, it wasn't hard to guess. His mood immediately dropped, he didn't want to seem unprofessional near her.

"I'm sorry Mistress, I thought it was a good time to train" He explained quickly, looking down. She walked over to him, grabbing his face and lifting it up, making him stare directly at her.

"Did your scores improve?" Shirogane asked, her nails slightly digging into his skin.

"Yes Mistress, they did" He answered. She let go of him, instead placing her hand on his head and gently petting him.

"You're so good, aren't you? Learning so well...my puppy deserves a prize, right?" She smiled as he leaned more into her touch. Amami observed the scene, slightly uncomfortable. Something about this situation was just...unsettling.

"Come on Dice, lets go" She said, tugging the boy out of the room with her. Ceres just watched as they both disappeared behind the door, wondering if he will be okay. He started liking the little guy, it would be a shame if something happened to him.

Unless something already did.


	18. Chapter 18

Kaito looked down, staring at the gravestone. The words carved on stone were almost covered by the huge amount of flowers placed all around it. Although even if it was hard to read it, he still knew exactly what the words were. He knew too well.

"In loving memory of Kaede Akamatsu"

They couldn't find her corpse. They had no idea what happened to it, it was nowhere to be found. The gravestone and funeral were more of a symbolic gesture. A lot of people came, since so many of them cared for the girl so deeply. Some might think that she was just a simple secretary, no one important, but to them she was so much more. She was their friend, someone that always supported and helped them. She always knew how to cheer them up and raise their spirits. She would listen to them talk whenever they needed to just vent to someone and always had some kind of advice. She was there for them all the time and when she needed them the most they...they didn't even notice. They didn't notice she was gone.

They failed her.

Kaito failed her.

He was glad he was wearing his mask and goggles with the black suit. At first he thought hiding his identity in a situation like this would be unhonorable, but at least it helped with covering the hurt expression that he couldn't get rid off. At least no one could see how watery his eyes were getting the longer he was staring at a soulless piece of stone in front of him. 

For a long time he was considering not even attending the funeral at all.

Not because he didn't care, absolutely not. Akamatsu was his dear friend, he wanted to pay her the respect she deserved for the last time. The problem was that some...other people didn't want him here. The rumors spread around the city pretty fast and Apollo's popularity was...certainly not growing. People started whispering. He pretended he doesn't know, but he knew exactly what they were talking about behind his back. They thought it was his fault. Future Foundation tried explaining the situation, saying how the only ones they should blame was Team Danganronpa, but it didn't help. There were different theories they had about the incident. Some said it was all the organization's fault, said they didn't care about anyone's safety. But others went...further than that. Some of them actually believed that Apollo himself knew about everything the whole time, said he was the real traitor, even claimed that he was the one who killed her.

The last one hurt the most.

He knew he messed up. He knew some of his coworkers didn't trust him anymore because of what he did. But saying he did something so cruel and horrible? They all liked him before, all yelled how much they adored him, but now...now they acted like it never happened. 

People change sides really quickly, don't they?

It wasn't that bad. It wasn't as bad as it could be. What happened that day was mostly kept as a secret to not cause panic. Apollo was still seen as a hero, as a symbol of hope and honour. Who hated him, then?

The Akamatsu family.

Momota knew they have been sending him glares ever since he arrived. He could feel them burning holes into his body, squezing fists and turning away from him. He wasn't the only disliked by them person, the rest of Future Foundation was also not treated too kindly, but he felt like they targeted him the most. He understood, they were in grief and maybe blaming him made them feel better. What he was upset about was how they treated Shuichi.

Shuichi Saihara, before this all happened, was almost treated as a part of their family. Kaede often visited her parents and dragged the boy with her, so they knew him very well. They welcomed him with open arms, treated him like their own child. For Shuichi it was something special, something he craved so badly. He never got that sort of parental, family love when he was a kid and finally someone gave it to him. He hated being famous, hated the expectations everyone threw at him, but with the Akamatsu family he could just forget about it all. He could feel like a normal person.

And now they pretended he doesn't exist.

It wasn't fair. To Kaito, it wasn't fair at all. Saihara was the one who prepared the funeral, who even thought about it in the first place, the one who took care of everything. He put so much into it, even though it hurt him, and they dared to ignore him. Shuichi did nothing wrong, they had no right to push him away, especially in the moment so hard for him. 

He wanted to somehow comfort him, put his hand on his shoulder and tell him it's going to be okay, but the blue haired man didn't even look at him. It's not like they argued and stopped talking, no, they were still friends, Saihara just needed some time for alone. To figure some things out for himself. Momota didn't really understand it, but he already knew from past experience that pressuring him into anything was not a good idea. Him and Maki also made up after a while. She was still slightly mad at him, but that was understandble. He was just glad she was still here. 

He didn't want to lose anyone else.

Kaito kept losing people. First Kokichi, now Kaede. What did he do to deserve this? He was constantly trying his best, he spent all his life doing things for others, why couldn't he just be happy? But he didn't really lose Kokichi, did he? He was still there, he just needed to find him again. Ever since he found out what happened to Akamatsu he has been even more motivated to save Ouma. He couldn't let him get hurt. He promised not only to the boy, but also to himself. 

"Apollo?" A female voice came from behind him. He turned around, suprised by who he saw.

"Taiyō?" Tenko Chabashira, with a superhero name Taiyō, was currently looking at him, arms placed on her hips. Her hair were tied in one big braid and she lacked her usual bow that she always kept on her head. Maybe she decided it wouldn't be appropriate for a funeral. She was also wearing a suit, it looked pretty similiar to the one he had on. He haven't really seen her for a few months, she moved away to the other part of Japan to fight crime there. She was once a part of Future Foundation, now she just occasionally helped them. "What are you doing here?"

"Huh!? What am I doing here!? What, am I not allowed to come to a funeral!?" She raised her voice angrily. 

"Hey, don't be so loud! If you want to yell at me at least do it in private!" He groaned, hoping that no one noticed them yet. He didn't want to bring even more attention to himself than he already had. 

"In private? With a male? No chance!" She crossed her arms, her brow furrowed.

"I won't do anything weird, I just don't want to interrupt people here. And it would be disrespectful to...to Kaede. You wouldn't want to do that to her, right?" He asked, looking back at the gravestone. Her expression immediately fell, following his gaze and looking in the same direction. She went silent, finally nodding and grabbing Kaito's arm, dragging him away. They both walked away from the rest of the group, until they were far enough for no one to hear them.

"I'm gonna make this quick, mostly because I don't want to talk with a degenerate like you! I decided to move back here!" She exclaimed, flipping her braid back. 

"Wait, what?" Momota took a second to fully think about what she just said. She wanted to go back? But why? Did she want to work with them? He didn't expect her to...want to work with them. Especially him. He was convinced she would be more on the Akamatsu family side and blame him too, but instead she acted like nothing really happened.

"Well, you are clearly not doing well, and I can't let any girls get hurt because of some dumbass degenerate!" Tenko huffed, glaring at him.

"You don't have to-" Momota could swear she sounded almost...concerned. Shouldn't she be more angry at him?

"Don't tell me what to do! I decided I'm staying here!" Chabashira refused to let him finish, grinning. Apollo sighned, giving up and just let her continue. "There's only one kinda little tiny problem, not like I wanna tell a male like you or anything, but...um..."

"But what?" Kaito asked, watching as she got slightly nervous. 

"Uhh...you know how half of the Future Foundation office got closed because of what happened? Which was probably some stupid degenerate male's idea, but the way, but, uh, it included the sleeping quarters and I kinda..."

"You have nowhere to stay?" Momota guessed, basing on the way she sounded. She nodded, embarrassed that she had to talk with him about it. "You can stay with me!"

"W-what!?" She almost squeled, jumping back. "No way I'm staying with a degenerate like you!"

"What? Why not?" Kaito wasn't sure why she was so against the idea. He offered her a place to stay, why wasn't she happy? Was her whole obession with hating men that bad?

"You're a man! How can I know I'm safe with you, huh!? It's gross and what if you try to touch me!?" Taiyō hissed out, clearly not trusting the other man.

"I won't try to hit on you or anything, don't worry" He chuckled. Was that really her biggest concern? He wouldn't touch anyone that way without consent, he would rather die. Momota really cared about people and even though sometimes he didn't fully understand what's appropriate and suitable to do and what's not, he was still trying his best to not make anyone uncomfortable. 

"How can I be sure!?" She questioned, still not satisfied with his response.

"Tenko. I'm gay" Apollo sighned. He still wasn't used to saying that, it wasn't till a year ago that he even realised he swung that way. He was always sure he liked women, but after him and Maki broke up he finally discovered why he felt so weird when trying to flirt with girls. He knew most people around him were pretty supportive and wouldn't mind, but he really needed more time to get used to it. 

"A...oh. OH!" Chabashira gasped, staring at him. She pointed her finger at him, then at herself, then back at him, still in shock. Kaito couldn't help but start laughing while watching her reaction. 

"S-stop laughing at me!" She whined, hitting him in the head, holding back giggles. 

"We're both gay, I have a pretty big couch, you staying at my place is really not a problem" Momota smiled, finally calming the girl down. After a while of discussing different rules and less important things, they finally came to an agreement, deciding that Tenko can stay as long as she needs to. When they came back to their previous spot, not many people were left. The gravestone still stood in the same place, that wasn't suprising, it's not like it could move. Although it didn't look so depressing anymore.

"You know what? I think Kaede would be glad that the two of us are getting along" Kaito broke the silence, stepping away from the memorial. He finally had the time to leave the flower he brought for the funeral. He didn't want to get too close before, but since no one was really there he wasn't that scared now.

"We're not getting along, bleh! I'm just...tolerating you. For now" Tenko corrected him, but couldn't hide a small smile that appeared on her face.

They didn't have to be so sad, right? Akamatsu wouldn't want them to be sad. Kaito could stay strong for her, he could prove that he isn't a bad person. Not everything was as horrible as it seemed. 

Maybe things will be easier with a new company on his side.


	19. Chapter 19

This day was supposed to be quite special for Kokichi. Well, not really supposed, it just was. And why? 

Today was his first serious mission. Not just standing on some robot and doing nothing like last time, no, today he could finally prove himself. He had been training all this time waiting for this moment and, after a lot of pain, bruises, getting shot by the bots and constantly trying to prove that he was ready, it came. 

The mission wasn't that complicated. Team Danganronpa was able to decypher part of the code from the Junko Enoshima Program and discovered they need some specific chemicals in order to start "part one". He didn't question what part one was, not like he was allowed to anyways. He, Ceres and Miu were sent to steal the said chemicals from the research station. They just had to get inside of the building, find the specific lab and let Iruma grab the right things while protecting her. It shouldn't be hard, not for them. Was it going well, then? 

Not really.

"Stop bumping into my ass you fucking twink!" Miu whispered loudly, turning her head back and glaring at him. They got slightly lost in the vents and now the three of them crawled in complete darkness trying to find the right room. The girl demanded that she will go first, but because of how slow she was Ouma kept accidentaly hitting himself against her. Amami stayed behind him, trying to ignore the two of them, more focused on navigating around the tight, claustrophobic, metal space. 

"It's not like I want to be anywhere near your gross slut butt" He responded, resulting in her letting out an almost moan like noise. 

"Can you please not" Rantaro was really not happy about that. He was probably rolling his eyes, but because they had no source of light it was pretty hard to tell. They kept moving, careful not to make too much sound. It felt like hours, until finally they saw light peeking through the metal bars in the vent. Miu looked through them, trying to see if it was the correct room. She squeled, letting them know they finally got to their destination. Ceres used his vine to remove the bars, creating a quick way inside. 

"They have so many stuff here!" The girl jumped down in the lab, grinning at the amount of different substances in front of them.

"Don't take too long, we don't have much time before they go back here, pretty sure they are having a lunch break right now" Explained Amami, walking up to the door so he could quickly take down anyone who decided to go inside.

"I know, I know! It will only take a few minutes, hot stuff!" She grinned at him, skipping to the nearest cabinet. 

"Never call me that again, please" Rantaro said, focusing back on the door. Ouma sat on one of the tables near him, swinging his legs. They all stayed silent for a while, Miu occasionally cursing when she couldn't find something. 

"So, first mission, huh?" Ceres looked at Kokichi, smiling. He and the other boy started getting along pretty well, ever since their first meeting in the training area. They didn't have a lot of time to talk, mostly because Shirogane kept dragging Ouma pretty much everywhere with her, stopping him from making more contact with others.

"What, scared I will be so much better then you on my first try?" Dice snickered. 

"Come on, I'm just checking if you're nervous or something, it's okay if you are" He sighned, playing with the plant shawl attatched to his costume. Iruma collected almost all of the things they needed, but she still struggled with finding one of them. 

"So, any plans after we finish, cucks?" Miu broke the silence, still searching different shelves and boxes. 

"Not really, nothing interesting to do" Amami responded, now leaning against the wall. 

"Need to report to Mistress" Ouma muttered, jumping off the table and walking around the lab, clearly bored.

"Why the fuck do you call that bitch 'mistress'?" The girl made a disgusted face, turning to him. 

"Don't call her a bitch" Dice immediately glared at her, reaching for the knife he carried with himself all the time. Ceres quickly ran up to him and grabbed his arm, stopping him from doing anything stupid.

"Calm down, she was just joking" He dragged the other boy away from her, taking the weapon away from him. "Although I thought about that a lot too. Why do you call her that?"

Kokichi was about to say something, but couldn't find the right words. Why did he call her that? Because she ordered him to, that's obvious. He thought about it before, didn't he? He thought about that on his first meeting with Amami. Why did they even care?

"He's like her little sex slave or something!" Miu laughed, stepping away from the chemicals and now looking directly at Ouma. "You do anything she asks you to, don't you? What are you, a dog?" 

Dice growled, pushing Amami away and rushing to the girl, grabbing her by her jumpsuit. She yelped, trying to get him off of her, yelling at him to stop. He didn't want to seriously hurt her, Tsumugi wouldn't be happy about that, but maybe if he scared her enough she would stop. He hated being called that. He wasn't a dog, he wasn't a slave, he wasn't weak. He was stronger than her, smarter than her, better than her. No one had the right to order him around or talk to him like that. He didn't listen to Missshift because he had to, he just decided to. Sure, she called him a puppy, but he wasn't her pet, right? She respected him. She told him no one else respected him before. She told him so many things, tought him so many things, showed him so many things. It was different with her. It had to be, he knew. He promised to serve her not because she threatened him, he made that choice on his own.

Or so he thought, at least.

"Ouma let go of her!" Ceres tried to pull him away, forgetting about guarding the door.

That was a big mistake.

One of the scientists, upon hearing the weird noises from the inside, stepped into the lab. The door opened and their heads snapped into it's direction. The worked looked at them, first in shock, then in fear. He screamed, smashing his hand against the red button on the wall and running away. The alarms went off, loud noises filling up the whole building. 

They were in big trouble.

"Grab the bags and go!" Iruma yelled, pointing at the two bags placed on the floor, filled up with different chemicals. Amami grabbed them both using two vines he grew from his back. Kokichi looked around, trying to find the best way to escape, his gaze locking with a large window. 

"You do realise we are inside of a skyscraper, right? We will die if we jump out you fucking idiot!" Groaned Miu, realising what the smaller man wanted to do. He didn't listen, instead grabbing one of the chairs and bashing it against the said window. The glass broke into tiny pieces, flying everywhere.

"How long will it take for you robot to come here?" He asked her, looking down, checking the distance from the ground. Iruma hummed for a second, thinking, before answering.

"Like...10 minutes? Maybe? Depends" She responded, confused. Why did he ask? It didn't matter now, it's not like it would help with anything.

"Hm, good enough. Whore-chan, block the door and call your mouse bot to come here, get the stuff out without breaking them, even a bimbo like you can do something as simple. I'm gonna distract the others so you can get out without fucking up. And Amami-chan?" He turned to the other male, grinning.

"Huh?" Rantaro stared at him, unsure what he wants.

"Catch me!" He chuckled, before...jumping out through the broken window. Ceres gasped, quickly putting the bags back on the floor and rushing after him, throwing himself down. 

He was not about to let the other one die because of his stupidity.

He tried to look around the best he could, which was obviously hard while falling from the sky. There was nothing to grab, nothing to hold, nothing that could somehow help. He used a left over vein from before to grab Ouma, pulling him closer. The boy didn't even look phased, giggling the whole time.

"Sooo...what's the plan?" He smiled, still not looking even a little bit scared even though the chances of them smashing against the ground were getting bigger and bigger.

"You don't have a plan!?" Ceres shouted. How could Dice be so calm about it!?

"Have you ever made a plant ball before?" He asked, still acting like nothing was wrong.

"Plant ball!? What do you even-!?...Ohhh" Amami finally realised what he meant. If he created some kind of barrier around them, like a ball, then maybe they could hit the ground without any serious injuries, but it would take up a lot of his energy. He also wasn't sure if it would actually work, but it was still better to try than do nothing.

Vines and flowers started busting out of his arms and his back, wrapping around both of them. He brought Ouma closer, almost squishing the boy against his chest, just to make sure he won't get too hurt. The plants soon covered them from head to toe, cutting out any light access, trapping them in darkness. Seconds after that, just as Amami finished the protective ball around them, they hit the ground. 

Rantaro groaned in pain and started coughing, a few leaves and flower petals flying out from his mouth. It happened whenever he overused his powers. He could easly lose control over the plants, resulting in them sometimes growing inside on his mouth or even...deeper in his organs, which was, to put it lightly, not pleasant. Luckily it wasn't too bad this time, his throat just felt slightly itchy. He reacher for Kokichi's knife, cutting off the roots and vines from his arms and back. It was way faster then trying to get some of them back into his body. The ball bursted open, finally allowing them both to see something. 

"Well, that was fun!" Dice grinned at him, standing up and dusting himself off. Ceres was about to lecture him about how dangerous it was and how he should never do that again, but something stopped him.

The heroes arrived. 

Or well, more like one specific hero. A big, spiky haired, magenta hero.

"I got this, go check if piggy-chan didn't mess up!" Said Ouma before walking out in the street, right where he could be seen by his opponent.

The show was about to begin.

"Ko...Kokichi?" Apollo looked at him, the expression under his mask changing. He got a report of someone breaking into the research center and went there as soon as he could, the last thing he expected was seeing...him. Maybe this time he could finally talk to him, finally explain everything, finally get him out of here. Missshift wasn't around so it should be okay, right? He rushed to the boy, happy to see him again, already opening his arms to hug him before...before getting kicked right in the face. Again.

He really should start learning from his past mistakes.

"W-what the hell!? Ouma, it's me!" He groaned, stumbling back a little but not falling down. 

Kokichi looked at him, smiling. For a second Kaito thought it was a kind, genuine smile.

Ouma thought it was pretty funny how naive that guy was.

Before the other could react, Ouma served him another kick, this time lower, perfectly into his crotch area. Momota yelped in pain, not even getting a minute of rest before another hit. He fell down, his back hitting against the ground. 

"I love playing with you, you know?" Dice laughed, pressing his right foot down on the hero's chest. He wasn't sure why the man wasn't trying to attack him, but he wasn't really complaining. It made his job way easier. "It would be great to chat with you a little, but I need to go! Bai bai~!" 

Kokichi kicked him once again, this time in the ribs, before walking away.

Or at least trying to walk away.

Apollo didn't want to give up. He couldn't let him walk away again, couldn't lose him. He grabbed his leg, tugging on it, causing the unexpecting boy to fall down. He quickly got on top of him, pinning his arms above his head.

"I'm not letting you go! Please, Kichi, it's me! I'm going to help you!" Kaito tried to somehow talk to him, holding his hands hard enough for Ouma to not be able to move them but not hard enough to actually hurt him. The last thing he wanted was to cause him any pain.

Dice looked confused, but mostly angry. He hated that he got distracted and too confident and now was stuck in this embarrassing position. Something about this whole thing felt...weird. 

"Uh...Apo...Apollo?" His expression softened. He was looking up at the other male, almost like he wasn't sure what was happening. He mumbled something, but it was too quiet for Kaito to hear. He leaned closer, trying to understand what he was saying.

That's when Dice grinned, slamming his head right into Momota's forehead.

The hero once again groaned, not expecting that hit. He moved back a bit, allowing Ouma to quickly move his own legs up, wrapping them around Kaito's neck and slamming him into the road. Kokichi moved, now sitting in top of him, his thighs squezed around his enemy's neck.

"I can't believe you fell for that! You really are a dummy, aren't you?" He giggled, choking Apollo with his legs. His victim should have been probably worried about not getting enough air, trying to somehow get away, but Kaito was way more focused on something else. That else being, shamefully, trying not to stare at the view on front of him. Did he mention Dice's pants were way too short? They were definitelly way too short. Who thought this way a good idea? Was he really going to stare at his thighs instead of fighting back? Well, it was better then looking at the thing that was directly in front of his face, no, he would not turn his eyes that way, he wasn't a creep. 

"K-kich-" He tried to say, but the thighs around him squezed harder, not allowing him to finish.

"Nah nah, no talking! I'm enjoying the moment, don't ruin it for me!" Kokichi pouted, moving his arm towards Kaito's face. He moved from his cheek up, towards the hairline. He went through his hair with his fingers, gently, almost affectionately, before tugging on them hardly, pulling Momota's head back. "Your face is turning blue! Lets see how much longer you can last, oki?"

The hero could almost feel like he was going to pass out again, but suddenly to force that was being put on his neck stopped. He opened his eyes, not even remembering when he closed them, trying to see what was happening. Dice got off him, waving and sending him a big smile before running off. 

Next thing he knew Tenko was in front of him, checking if he was okay. Kokichi must have stopped because he didn't want to risk getting cought by her. Apollo tried to stand up, tried searching for him, but the boy was nowhere to be found. 

Once again, Kokichi Ouma disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not exactly satisfied with how this chapter came out, but I decided to post it anyways. I'll gladly hear any opinions you guys have in the comments!


	20. Chapter 20

"Come on, wake up you degenerate!" Tenko groaned, throwing her slipper at the sleeping man. He wasn't really sleeping, he just simply refused to go out, staying curled up in his bed. At first the girl didn't mind. More than that, she was even happy that she didn't have to bother herself with him and that she could have some peace. But now? It got annoying. Kaito did almost nothing except for staying locked up in his room, going out a couple times only to get himself a cup of coffee or a can of beer and then go back to his cave. He ignored his job at the café, completely forgetting about it. What also worried (well, not worried, she wouldn't be worried about a male like him) was that his house, that she was also currently living in, was becoming even more of a mess than before. Trash everywhere, dust sitting on everything, weird stains on the floor, dying plants. The last one was especially suprising, considering how much Momota cared about them before. Something had to be done about this, she couldn't stand this any longer.

"Leave me alone" Kaito muttered, pulling a pillow over his head. He didn't want to talk with her, he didn't really want...anything. He didn't know what was wrong with him, he never felt this way before. It was as if suddenly all his energy was drained from him. Why was he feeling that was? Well, the answer probably wasn't that hard to guess.

Ouma.

He couldn't help but blame himself for what happened. He was given not one, not two, but multiple chances to get him back and messed up all of them. After the incident in the research center he had the opportunity to meet with Kokichi a couple more times during less important missions, but all of them ended up...terribly. Kaito would always refuse to fight, trying to just explain things, but the boy would just end up beating the living shit out of him. He couldn't even talk to him, couldn't try to help, nothing he did worked. He was pretty useless, wasn't he?

"Get your ass out of bed! I'm not letting you rot here!" She tried to tug the blanket off his body, irritated. Thankfully, her super strenght helped with that, the piece of fabric quickly landing forgotten on the floor. It was one of Chabashira's powers, the second being an ability to regenerate. From healing a simple bullet wound to regrowing a whole limb, some people rumored that she was pretty much immortal. She couldn't really control her powers, which meant that sometimes she would accidentaly destroy thing by grabbing them too hard or hurt someone unintentionally. 

After a while of trying to reason with the man, convincing him to get up and take care of himself, she decided she had enough. She picked him up with no problem, throwing him over her shoulder, carring him out of the room. He tried to wiggle out of her grip, yelling at her to let him go, but she didn't care. Tenko threw him into a shower (not really, more like put him in, she didn't want to risk hurting him too badly), frowning.

"You stink. Wash yourself and then we can talk, idiot!" After Momota didn't react at her words she got even angrier. She grabbed the shower head, quickly turning on cold water, spraying it at Kaito. He hissed, almost like a cat, trying to shield himself from it. When she finally stopped he was soaking wet, his pyjamas clinging to his skin.

"You didn't have to do that..." He mumbled, brushing wet hair out of his face. 

"Shut up and just do the thing, I don't want to spend any more time in a bathroom with a male!" She turned around and walked out, shutting the door loudly. The man sighned, getting up and deciding that since he is already wet he might actually just shower.

After what felt like an hour of scrubbing himself clean, Momota eventually came out of the bathroom. He really didn't notice how greasy his hair got before, he was glad he decided to take care of them (more like got forced to, but he wouldn't admit that). He dressed up in his typical black boxers with red stars on it and a basic, boring, short sleeved shirt. Chabashira didn't even bother to yell at him for not wearing pants again, at this point she was used to it. Well, she couldn't really complain, she herself also had a bad habit of walking around in only loose pants and a sport bra.

"You stink less, congratulations asshat" She said when he stepped into the kitchen. Tenko was currently taking stuff out of the fridge, placing them on the counter, humming while also looking at something on her phone.

"What are you doing?" Momota asked, walking up to her.

"We're going to cook, get you ass here!" She answered, grabbing another ingredient.

"Tenko, we both can't cook. Lets just order pizza or something-"

"No! I said we're cooking so we're cooking, degenerate!" Tenko fussed, glaring at him. She grabbed him by the arm, bringing him closer.

"What are we even doing?" He looked at the food prepared on the counter, not sure what she was trying to accomplish. She must have bought most of the things before, since he didn't remember keeping any type of fish meat on his house. Was fish a meat? Not important. Other things he could see were ginger, garlic, a lot of soy souce, olive oil, mirin and....maple syrup? He had no idea what she was planning.

"I found a teriyaki salmon recipe! Even a male like you should be able to do something as simple" She explained, grabbing most of the ingredients except for the said salmon. She put them in a bowl, measuring the soy souce and maple syrup in tablespoons, just like the article on her phone said. Kaito stood for a while, observing her, but after getting yelled at he got to work too. He sliced the fillets, seasoning them with salt and pepper, trying his best to keep the right proportions (but of course messing up and adding too much salt). After he was done Chabashira grabbed the salmon parts and threw them into the bowl with the dressing, putting it in the fridge. 

"Shouldn't you pour it over the fish and not just throw it there?" Momota questioned, not really confident in the girl's cooking skills.

"I'm sure I'm doing it right, so hush! We need to let it marinate for...2 hours!" She read off her phone, putting it aside. The two of them stared at eachother awkwardly, not knowing what to do now.

"So uh...want a beer?" Kaito broke the silence, looking at her.

"Oh no, no, no, I am not letting you get drunk again!" Tenko grabbed him harshly by the hair, dragging him out of the kitchen. Seriously, did she have to do that every time? Couldn't she just tell him to walk?

The girl pushed him down on the couch, now staring at him from above, her arms crossed. She looked like she was waiting for something, but Momota wasn't really sure what she was expecting from him.

"I'm done with you acting like a human wreck! Tell me what's going on" She demended loudly, glaring at him. 

What was going on?

He didn't know.

He had no idea what was wrong anymore. He didn't know why he felt that way, or at least told himself he didn't know. But in reality he knew, right? It was obvious. He could just say it, tell someone, let some of that pain out, he just...didn't know how. He never talked about his problems with people. It wasn't that he didn't have any problems before, no, of course not, that's not really possible. Kaito simply prefered to keep things for himself, more focused on helping others than getting help from them. He was supposed to be the strong mentor they could look up to, someone who never broke down and always knew what to do. He shouldn't be like this. He shouldn't act like a mess and be vurnerable, that wasn't who Apollo was. 

But maybe that was who Kaito Momota was.

A scared, confused, young man with his life falling apart. A human who thought everything was getting better only for it to break into pieces. A person who lost someone important to him and had to watch the person he loves hurt him over and over and over. He was allowed to feel bad, slightly betrayed, he couldn't ignore his emotions. Although it was hard. It was so hard to break that bubble he created around himself, tear that stupid persona down. He wanted to cry to someone, just like they cried to him. He wanted someone to see that he needs help.

He thought Kokichi will be the one, but...he wasn't here anymore. He changed.

Momota didn't understand why. Didn't want to understand why. How could the Ouma he saw not too long ago be the same one he knew before? He didn't act the same. 

Past Ouma giggled cutely when Kaito made a really bad joke. Past Ouma loved hero related stuff and enjoyed hearing about them from him. Past Ouma often drank his coffee too fast and whined when his tongue got burnt. Past Ouma fell asleep in his arms while stargazing, usually ending up with his head on Kaito's lap. Past Ouma was the boy he loved.

Did he love the new Ouma?

He wasn't sure, but something was telling him that he did.

He cared for him, he couldn't bring himself to hurt him. He could still see that it was him. The teasing, switching between being serious and childlike, the way he talked. It was still his Ouma. His Kokichi. Is that why it hurt so much?

He didn't know when he started saying it all out loud. He kept talking and talking, words slipping, spilling from his mouth, one after another. His eyes got watery, yet he couldn't cry, not now. He didn't dare to look at Tenko, he didn't want to see her pity him. Would she pity him? Maybe she was disgusted, or thought he was weak. What if she left him too? They weren't exactly friends, but he got used to her. He didn't talk as much with Maki or Shuichi anymore, he didn't know it they were avoiding him or if he was avoiding them. Chabashira was here, but she could leave, he could be alone, without her, without his sidekicks, without Kaede, without Kichi-

A pair of arms wrapped around him.

He almost jumped up, suprised by the touch.

Was Tenko...hugging him? 

He looked down, just to make sure he wasn't dreaming. There she was, her hands on his back, close to him, his head slightly pressed against her chest since she was still standing. Not too comfortable position, but somehow it was comforting. Comforting in a really weird, unexpected way.

"Don't get used to it, I don't usually hug degenerates" She muttered, yet she did nothing to end the hug. Momota slowly melted into the touch, hugging back, finally letting himself relax. His bottom lip trembled slightly, his eyes stinging because of how much he just wanted to cry. Chabashira was there, not moving, letting him sob. They weren't sure how long they stayed like that, but they didn't mind. It took some time, but Momota calmed down slightly, now only sniffing quietly.

"I normally don't get friendly with men, since you all are pretty gross, but, uh...I guess you're not that bad" She admitted, clearly embarrassed by her own words. Kaito chuckled softly, pulling away from her.

"I guess you're not that bad too" He smiled, wiping the dryed tears from his cheeks. "Thank you, Tenko. Really. Just, fuck, don't tell anyone that this happened"

"Of course I won't tell, I can't let anyone know I touched a degenerate!" She yelled, but to Momota it sounded more like a joke than a serious statement. They both laughed, the tension that appeared between the two of them before completely disappearing. The girl decided to sit next to him, turning on the TV. They spent time watching random channels, commenting how bad they were. It felt pretty nice, especially to Kaito. He felt...better. Lighter. Like some heavy weight perished from his heart.

He wasn't fine, his problems still existed, but it didn't feel so overwhelming anymore.

He could finally enjoy some time without his own thoughts attacking him. That is, until something happened.

"Uh, Tenko? Did you turn on the oven?" Momota asked, feeling like something wasn't alright.

"Oh, right, I wanted to heat it up a little!" She answered, turning her gaze away from the television. She frowned, taking a second, a weird smell reaching her nose. It wasn't pleasant, not at all, and at the same time it felt familiar, almost like...

"I think something is burning"


	21. Chapter 21

"What I'm trying to say is, we will test this out on you" Said Tsumugi, looking directly at Dice. What was going on? Well, he would surely like to know.

It all started with Miu running into Missshift's office while she was taking his measurements again, because she insisted on making more costumes for him. He was starting to feel almost like a doll, constantly being dressed up, dragged everywhere, doing everything he was told to. He kept telling himself it was okay, because it was Shirogane ordering him and he wanted her to do that, right? Continuing the story, Iruma announced that they finished working on "part one". He still had no idea what part one was, but just like before, he didn't question. They walked down to the labs, a group of what looked like scientists gathered in front of one of the tables. One of them was holding some kind of vial with a greenish liquid inside of it. Tsumugi took it, observing it closely, before turning to Ouma. That's how he got into another mess. Again.

"Was it...tested before?" He asked, looking at the object in her hand unsurely. People around him seemed tensed up, he felt like something was not right. 

"I wouldn't tell you to test it if it was already tested, would I? Get on the chair" She ordered, whispering something to one of the workers near her. The scientists nodded, going off somewhere before returning with a syringe. The needle looked thick, long and sharp, making Kokichi gulp. They wanted to inject that into him?

"Is it safe?" He decided to ask again, still not moving. He felt like he was frozen in place, unable to fulfill the request. Was he...scared? He didn't remember last time he felt like this. Was it because the room was so familiar to his old cell? 

"Well, we will know after we test it! Just get on the chair" Tsumugi was starting to sound impatient, clearly annoyed by the fact that her pet was not doing what she wanted. She grabbed the boy's arm, dragging him to the metal chair. Memories of his past tortures flashed through his head, making him shiver. He didn't do anything bad, right? He wasn't going to get punished, was he? He was good, he was trying to be good, he didn't deserve to go through so much pain again. 

Two men strapped his arms and legs to the chair with cuffs, confusing him even more. Why was he getting restrained? Why could no one tell him what was going on and why did he deserve it? He thought he was doing everything right, he was sure he was doing everything right, so why was he getting hurt again? No, he wasn't getting hurt, he was just scared for no reason, he shouldn't be. Tsumugi wouldn't hurt him, not now. She promised and he trusted her.

The syringe filled up with the mysterious green liquid, just like Ouma's head filled up with fear.

Shirogane walked over to him after consulting with one of the workers, tugging one of his long gloves down, giving her more access to the skin on his arm. Dice looked around, almost panicked, suddenly making eye contact with Iruma. He expected her to not care, maybe even look amused by what was happening to him, but for some reason she also acted pretty nervous. Her gaze, fixated on him, was full of worry and something Ouma couldn't even describe. Did she knew what was going on? He didn't think she would help him, even if it was something terribly bad, from past observations he noticed she was afraid of Missshift, too afraid to go against her. Which meant that right now, if they were planning to do something to him, he was not safe. He has no one to save him. He felt weird feeling of déjà vu, almost like this exact thought appeared in his head before, like it wasn't the first time this was happening. No one to save him...was there someone? No, he couldn't remember anyone, yet that sentence still didn't feel quite true. 

He felt a cold needle touching his arm. 

Kokichi jolted in his seat, causing Tsumugi to accidentaly drop the syringe. It broke, the liquid spilling on the ground. A few people gasped, including Miu, watching the incident with shock. 

He seriously fucked up.

Shirogane looked angry. Not even angry, furious. She harshly grabbed him by the hair, forcing his head up, just like she used to do while she was still training him. He though she was going to scold him, maybe even threaten to put him back into the cell, but instead he got something way different.

A rough slap.

"Did you know how hard it was to make this!? You're lucky we still have more, you dirty mutt! You do NOT disrespect me like this!" She yelled, still not letting go off his hair. Ouma had to bite on his lip, trying to not let anyone hear the whimpers of pain forcing themselves out of his throat. Shirogane said she would not hurt him, yet now his cheek pulsed with pain and his scalp stinged. But it was his fault, right? He messed up and he deserved that, that's why she did it. He can't let himself do that again, he has to prove he's good, he didn't want Mistress to get mad at him. He couldn't let her get mad at him, not when she was the only person he had. 

"I'm going to try again, if you repeat your mistake I will not go easy on you" She threatened, glaring at him. Someone handed her a new syringe, the needle pressing against his skin, just like before. This time he tried his best not to move, closing his eyes tightly as the metal made his way inside. It didn't exactly hurt, it was just deeply unpleasant. The liquid started being injected into him, making him more anxious than before. After a while the needle got quickly pulled out, a hiss leaving his mouth, the boy unable to stop it.

At first he thought nothing was wrong and he felt slightly relieved. That is, for the first minute, before it actually started working.

The weird warmth spread through his body, growing and growing the more he waited for it to go away. Soon, it went from just an uncomfortable feeling to actual pain, his veins burning almost like someone set them on fire. Now he understood why he was restrained, he was sure that he would destroy the whole room if he had the chance to, his mind and eyes completely blurry. All the sounds around him were muffled and he had problems with hearing anything, but by the way his throat ached, he could assume that he was screaming. Or at least making some kind of sound. Why did it hurt so much? He had no idea why he deserved it, he was doing everything perfectly and made sure to not even interact with other people too much. He trained, he completed his missions, he almost never left Mistress's side, so why? Drops of sweat clinged to his skin, his hair sticking to his forehead. 

It was ending. It took a long time, too long, but it was ending. The heat was getting less and less painful, and finally it stopped, leaving him painting and breathing heavily.

"You actually handled it...impressive" Missshift muttered, smirking. She made her way to the tired boy again, her hands softly grabbing his cheeks, carrassing them. He leaned into the touch happily, liking the comfort it gave him. Loving the comfort it gave him. It felt addictive, he wanted her to do that, wanted her to do anything except for hurting him. With every day the uneasy feeling he had when she touched him disappeared, getting replaced with something more pleasant. He told himself he is supposed to like it, so he liked it. And now he was actually liking it.

"I'm sorry for hurting you, puppy, you know I didn't mean it, right? It's a reward, you know?" Shirogane cooed, brushing some of his wet hair out of his face. He nodded mindlessly, deciding not to think of it too much. She said she didn't mean it so she obviously didn't mean it. She wouldn't lie to him. She never lied. 

He was safe with her. 

"I need you to stay awake, come on, we need to see if it worked" Tsumugi uncuffed him, tugging him off the chair. He had to clinge to her in order to not fall on the ground. His limbs felt weak, he didn't think he could stand on his own at all, at least for now. 

A person he didn't notice before stood in front of him, their hand reached out towards him. He didn't bother to look up and see their face, it didn't matter. Shirogane moved his hand for him, making him touch the stranger. He swear that some weird pulse went through him as soon as that happened, making him shiver once again. 

"I need you to do something really simple for me, I'm sure a good boy like you can do that" She smiled, now turning his hand towards the chair he was previously sitting on. "Focus on it and move your fingers up. Show me what will happen. Show me how well you listen to me"

He didn't question. He didn't say no. He did exactly what she wanted him to, focusing on the piece of metal and forcing himself to move his pointing and middle finger up. The chair shook for a second, before...slightly lifting up from the ground, levitating in the air. As soon as he realised what just happened, what he did, his eyes widened, chair dropping back down. The people in the room started clapping, but he still couldn't put facts together and understand why.

"This is the first part of Junko Enoshima Program, or what we like to call a 'power transplantation'. Part of my DNA has been modified and then put into you, allowing your body to, lets say, mutate. Main goal was to use the coping technique from my power that allows me to shapeshift and change it into something different, something better, something suited for a good weapon like you. A man you touched before? He posseses a power to make objects levitate. You copied it. The experiment worked perfectly!" She grinned, letting go of him. Ouma dropped on the floor, too tired to try to stand up. 

He just got a superpower. 

Superpowers appearing wasn't anything new. Ever since the new chemicals that claimed to be a cheaper and better for enviroment alternative for the ones they were using before started to be used, a lot of...incidents happened. He didn't know the whole story, it was kept away from the public and was mostly spread as rumors. What he heard was that during some accidents with them, mutations started forming. Because of that, a lot of people affected by them decided to use them for something good, becoming superheroes. Of course some other individuals went the other way, becoming villains. It was almost natural, powers just existed in their world. But to get them on purpose? This was definitely not normal.

"We will begine more tests tommorow, to see if your powers work properly. Everyone, go back to your quarters now!" Missshift ordered, the scientists and others who were previously in the room leaving. Ouma though that Tsumugi would help him get up and take him back to her office as always, but...she left. She walked out, leaving him on the cold floor, almost like she forgot he was there. 

He couldn't move. He wanted to sleep.

"For fuck's sake...little shit, come on, you hear me?" Said someone, getting on their knees next to Kokichi, shaking him by the shoulders. He opened one of his eyes, a vibrant pink colour hitting him as soon as he looked up. 

Miu was still there.

Why was Miu there?

"Fuck, you're totally out of it, aren't you?" She wrapped one of her arms around him, dragging him up, but he was still barely holding up, even with her support. She groaned, using her second arm to grab his legs, lifting him up bridal style. "You're lucky you don't weight a shit tone, or else I would leave you here, twink. I'm gonna take you to my and 'mami's room, sleep if you want, I don't care"

Ouma didn't respond, but he didn't have to. Miu carried him all the way the 'living' part of the base, a place where all the rooms they were given were placed. She kicked the door a couple of times, unable to open or even knock on them with her hands blocked by the man's body. They opened after a while, confused Rantaro standing in the entrance.

"Is that...Ouma?" He asked, rubbing his eyes. It was middle of the night, he probably went to sleep without waiting for the girl, as usual.

"Ugh, thought I'm gonna bring him here so he doesn't sleep on the floor or shit. If he doesn't fit with us in the bed I'm throwing him on the carpet" She joked, walking into their tiny home.

Team Danganronpa didn't have much to offer. Their living space included only a bathroom, a kitchen mixed with living room and one bedroom. They were also forced to share it, which wasn't too pleasant at first. The couch they had was small and felt like a rock, so after a lot of arguing they decided to simply share a bed. It was pretty awkward the few first nights, but at this point both Miu and Amami were just used to it. 

Iruma placed Dice in the middle of the bed, leaving to change herself into her pyjamas. The boy wasn't responding, so the two villains assumed he was already asleep. Ceres, before going back to bed, took off some of Ouma's clothes (he didn't think that sleeping in corset would be good for him), dressing him up in one of his shirts. It was way too big for the him, but he hoped it was at least comfortable. He covered him with a blanket, soon joining in and crawling under it on Kokichi's left side. Miu came back to the bedroom after a while, yawning and getting on the right side of the sleeping boy. She mumbled a quick "goodnight dickweed" towards Rantaro before practically passing out, snoring loudly. 

They all ended up cuddling on "accident", but of course none of them would ever mention that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the story is not going too fast. Thanks for reading and as always, any comments are really appreciated!


	22. Chapter 22

Maki and Shuichi didn't hate Kaito. They never could, Kaito was the closest friend they had. They owned him a lot.

Saihara could easly admit that Kaito was the reason he was still here. Maybe it was a little harsh to say and sounded like an overdramatic reaction, but that was the truth. Before, before Kaito appeared in his life, he felt useless. Overwhelemed. He hated being a hero, hated being forced into the family business, hated the expectations they put on him. He wanted to, saying it in the lightest way possible, end it all. His life was miserable and he simply didn't want it. But then Kaito came and gave him a reason to not give up. He tought him how to be more asertive, helped him make contact with more people, explained that he can enjoy being a hero without doing it only to please his parents. Shuichi looked up to him, desperately craved comfort from him, even cought himself developing feelings for the other man. He knew he wouldn't return them, but he already accepted that.

At least that's what he told himself.

Harukawa could laboriously admit that Kaito was the reason she was still here. It wasn't so harsh to say and didn't sound like an overdramatic reaction, that was just the truth. Before, before Kaito appeared in her life, she was a cold, heartless assassin, killing people despite the fact that they had families, friends, children. She took any job, any request, no matter the reason behind it. She wasn't proud of some of them, but that was what she had to do in order to survive. It was the only thing she could do, what she was trained to do. Kaito helped her out, dragged her up instead of down, didn't leave her to rot in prison after he cought her. He gave her a second chance. He tought her that her past didn't define her, helped her repent, explained that she could still become a good person. She didn't like the way he acted around her at first, but she got used to it and even cought herself enjoying him often dumb behaviour. She thought she loved him, but realised that she was wrong about her feelings. He was her friend and it's not like she needed him all the time.

At least that's what she told herself.

He was always there for them and the least they could do was he there for him. Which they did not do. They wanted, they really did, but Kaito was clearly avoiding them. It was so unlike him, the man they knew would never try to isolate himself from others. 

Which meant that the situation was really bad.

So what else could they do? 

Take the matters into their own hands.

For weeks they have been trying to track down Dice and Missshift, tried investigating and finding out why the boy Momota was so obsessed with was also so important to the Team Danganronpa leader. There had to be a reason for her to keep him, there was a reason behind everything she did. Everything was always planned to near perfection and keeping the boy for no reason would easily ruin it, so there was a huge chance she still needed him for something.

A huge red flag was what they found out a day after the incident in the research center. The workers handed them a list of all the stolen chemicals and by going through it they could already tell they were not stolen for money purposes. If they wanted to sell them, they would focus on the valuable ones, but all the substances they took were actually not that high-priced. They were rare, but that's simply because they stopped being produced due to how useless they were. At least useless in the eyes of a typical scientists, who knows what Team Danganronpa could do with them, especially since they were now in posession of the Junko Enoshima program. 

Which lead them to a question.

Did they steal them for that purpose? 

It would make sense, obviously they would start working on decoding the program as soon as they got it. Future Foundation had no idea what was stored on that pendrive, but it might have been as well some type of instructions they were not following, which would explain why they suddenly needed so many things. To what was the possible instructions? That was a harder question.

For now, they needed to focus on what "part one" was. And how did they know about part one? Simple.

"So while we were trying to get into the building you saw the robot just ran away and somehow planted a sound recording device on it?" Saihara repeated what she said, slightly dumbfolded. The girl invited him to her house, which honestly looked more like an office, saying she found out something important. He arrived as soon as he could and she explained the whole situation to him, but it still was a bit...suprising.

"Ronshin N9 GMS listening device upgraded by Mr. Souda, to be exact. I didn't have the right weapons to take the robot down at that time and I needed to help people in the building first, so I decided to use it, just in case. The battery only lasted for a day but I recorded the sound" Maki turned towards her computer, quickly going through her files, tugging the boy closer.

"Of course you did...did it have a tracking system too?" He asked, focusing on the screen. 

"It did, but the pilot realised it was there. They took it down and threw it one of the garbage cans half an hour away from the city center, here" Harukawa pulled out a photo of a map, dragging it onto the screen and pointing at the red dot marked on it, just as she said, away from the main part of the city.

"That means that this is the way to their base, right? At least we have some kind of clue" Shuichi sighned. He was hoping that they could finally get the exact location, but just as always, the villains were step above them. 

"That's not the only thing I got. I have the sound recording from the time the device was still on the robot. A phone call" She continued, opening more files. Saihara's eyes widened, not expecting that turn of events.

"A phone call? Like, someone inside the bot talking with someone else? Are you serious?" He perked up, scanning all the text and notes on the screen carefully.

"I just said it, idiot. Listen" She pressed play on one of the files, the recording starting. The man next to her went quiet, listening silently.

The recording was in fact hard to hear, mostly because of the loud, heavy steps of the machine. Shuichi couldn't really understand most of what the person in the robot was saying, even though he tried his best to focus. It ended soon, probably because Harukawa cut off the less important parts.

"It took me a while, but listen again to that part" She played the recording again, dragging Shuichi even closer. After a while of intense listening, he finally recognised two words.

Part one.

"Part one? What is that?" He questioned, confused by the words. That could mean anything, right? Was that really going to help them in any way?

"Think about it. Getting the pendrive, the fact that there were again no serious attacks after until the incident in the research center, the stolen chemicals" Maki started pointing out, shitting down her computer and now looking straight at him.

"Do you think they...decoded it?" Shuichi muttered, nervously gazing at her.

"At least part of it. I'm sure" She claimed, brushing some of her hair behind her ear.

"T-that's...that's bad. That's so bad" Saihara's face went pale from fear. The Junko Enoshima program was dangerous, there's a reason why they did not try to find out what it cointained. If the villains actually got to it then none of them were safe anymore. 

"I noticed one thing connecting all the recent serious cases and I'm almost sure it might be the key to the whole situation. If we get rid of it, Missshift's plan might fail" Said Harukawa, sounding even more serious than before. 

"Well...what is it?" Shuichi seemed even more nervous now, feeling like he won't like whatever words were about to leave his friend's mouth.

"Dice" She answered quickly, no hesistation in her voice. "We should kill Dice"

"What!?" Saihara almost yelled out, shocked. "We can't do that!"

"She is using him against Kaito. That idiot is the strongest hero we currently have. If he breaks down, it's over for us, especially since others are away and we can't even contact most of them. Missshift is waiting for a right moment to use him to either hurt or even murder Kaito. We can't let her do that. We need to strike first" Maki explained, convinced that she was right.

"But we can't kill him! Kaito loves him, do you know how much that will hurt him!? And we aren't even supposed to kill people! It's a bad idea, w-we can't, what if-"

"He will get over it. He will get over him. They didn't even know eachother that long, Kaito's life and safety is more important than some criminal" She hissed out, glaring at the other man. She didn't want to be harsh, didn't want to do anything she will regret, but Momota was important to her. To them. She promised she won't even kill anyone again, won't get any more blood on her hands, she promised that not only to herself but also to Kaito. She had to break that promise. She cared about him and even though killing someone he...liked didn't seem like a good idea, it was the only thing he could do to protect him. 

She already decided and would not change her mind.

If Dice couldn't get out of Missshift's grip, she had to rip him out of it herself. And how?

Mostly likely by shooting him right in the head.


	23. Chapter 23

"Is the little bitch sleeping in our bed again?" Miu groaned, looking at the purple haired boy currently rolled up under their covers. Since she first brought him in, that's where he's been spending most of his nights. She didn't really mind, but of course she would never openly admit that, so complaining about it was a better idea.

"Passed out during training, dragged him here" Explained quickly Amami, pouring the boiling water into his cup and placing a tea bag inside. He wasn't a big fan of coffee, but tea? That was his absolute favourite drink.

"Again? Fuck, who even allows him to do that!?" The girl yelled loudly, throwing her hands in the air. She had a good reason to be angry.

Kokichi has been passing out pretty much every two or three days, all because of how intense his training was. He, of course influenced by Missshift, decided he wants to learn to control his new power the best he could. He would spend hours copying people's powers and then testing them out. The problem was, his body did not handle most of the powers well.

Example?

Rantaro's vines.

Ceres had a lot of time to be able to learn how to use them, how to manipulate them and how to grow them. His body was used to it, mostly, which made everything way easier. He also gained a high pain tolerance and quick injury regenaration process, which was especially needed while trying to literally grow something out of your skin. Ouma, of course, didn't have that. When he first tried growing a vine after copying Amami's power he practically blacked out from pain. That didn't stop him from trying again and again, ending up seriously hurt every single time. 

What shouldn't be a suprise is that Tsumugi Shirogane did nothing to stop him. She encouraged the boy more and more, resulting in him gaining even more injuries and getting even more exhausted with every day. They knew she would do that, she was cruel towards everyone, Dice especially.

Something about her relationship with Ouma seemed really off to Miu and Amami. The way he spoke about her, the way his behaviour changed every time she was near, the way he did everything she wanted to without a question. The whole "mistress" and "puppy" calling also started raising their suspicion, even though at first they took it as a joke. Whatever they had going on between them was clearly not normal and it made the two anti-heroes worry. 

Was that why they were trying to break into Tsumugi's office? Maybe. Was it definitely dangerous and could get them both killed? Probably.

The door to her main office were protected by an electronic panel with a code. Of course, none of them actually knew the code, she changed it every two weeks for safety reasons. If Amami was doing this alone it would be quite a problem, but for Miu? Nothing too hard.

"How are we going to open this?" Asked Ceres while whispering. It was middle of the night and even though there was pretty much no one around, he prefered to still be careful. 

"Don't worry your pretty ass off, gorgeous girl genius came prepared!" Iruma laughed, snapping her fingers. Suddenly something moved in one of her bags, opening it from the inside and crawling out. 

What was it? Her little mouse bot, Minnie.

Rantaro already knew what, or who, Minnie was. The girl didn't go anywhere without it, constantly bringing her tiny helper everywhere with her. Minnie was a small mouse bot, a mini version of the mecha robot she used for fighting. It was like a ball of the size of her hand, with two mouse ears and tail that was also an USB cable. It walked on four, not too big, spider like legs. It looked more like a toy than a serious invention, but in reality it was way more dangerous than people would think. It could easly hack into any devices, record noises and movements and, the most important, it was responsible for activating Miu's actual weapon, the bigger robot. It simply inserted itself into the right slot and connected to the bigger mouse, using it almost like an armor. 

Right now, Minnie crawled on Miu's arm, making it's way to the panel on the door. It connected to the device using the cable, buzzing a little while doing so. They waited, the little mouse beeping once in a while before the tail disconnected from the door, opening it. 

"See? Easy peasy!" Iruma grinned and walked inside, Amami following. 

The room was pretty big comparing to the typical offices. There were fabrics laying on the floor, threads and needles stacked everywhere, sketches and notes pinned to the walls. It sure didn't look like a typical offices of an evil mastermind villain, but considering Shirogane's character, it wasn't all that suprising. Although that part of the room didn't catch their interest. What they cared about was the locked cabinet at the end of the room. Did they know what was inside? No. Did they even know what they were looking for? No. Would they still try to open it? Yes.

"It's a normal lock, Minnie can't do shit now" Miu groaned, kicking the padlock on the cabinet handle. Why would Missshift use a simple metal piece like this instead of some complicated electronics?

"I mean, lock like this is less suspicious than another code or things like that. And I think I might be able to open it" He explained, getting closer and reaching his hand towards the padlock. A tiny vine grew out of his pointing finger, sliding into the lock. He moved it for a while, looking for something, before they both heard a click sound. The padlock fell on the floor, the cabinet's door unlocking. 

"Nice job homo!" Miu opened the cabinet wider, practically sticking her head inside of it.

"How many times do I have to tell you I'm not gay?" Amami signed, the vine from his finger going back into his body.

"Yeah, yeah, you're a...ass?" She stopped and hummed, trying to remember the word. She swore it started with a but couldn't exactly remember it. 

"Ace, Miu. Ace" Ceres chuckled, grabbing one of the boxes from the cabinet and opening it, looking for something that would catch his attention. 

"Yeah, that! I was just joking anyways, duh" Iruma rolled her eyes, also giggling slightly. She grabbed some papers from the bottom shelf and quickly went through them, tossing them behind her whenever she decided they are not important. "By the way, Dicktaro, why did you even join this shithole?"

Amami froze slightly, thinking about the question. Why did he even join?

"For my sisters" He answered quickly, going back to checking the boxes.

Rantaro never really wanted to become a criminal. Back then, before his life became a mess, he followed one of his biggest dreams, exploring the world. He traveled to many countries, mostly islands and less known locations, searching for adventures and new experiences. His favourite thing about it was the wildlife, the flora. He studied plants and trees, took pictures of them, collected them and learnt as many things about them as he could. During one of his trips he heard a rumor from locals about a forest with a clearing that no one went to. They said it was haunted and supposedly anyone who dared to step inside died a few hours after. Of course, he decided to find it, not thinking about the consequences. Ghosts and demons weren't real so he should be okay, right? Well, they don't exist, but the chemicals that have been tested there and caused the rumors were. Long story short, he got infected, a mutation formed in his body, similiar story to other people who developed powers. But why did he turn into a criminal?

His father died soon after, leaving him and his twelve sisters alone. None of the girls were old enough to work and because of that he was the one who had to somehow take care of them. He took as many jobs as he could but it still wasn't enough. He didn't want to send them to an orphanage, no one would adopt all of them and he couldn't bare to think about his siblings getting split apart. So what did he do? He started stealing. His powers made it pretty easy and soon he got so good at it that he became way too confident when it came to his skills. He took jobs from a lot of sketchy organizations, stealing for them. One day he was asked to get something from Team Danganronpa by another rival criminal team and of course he didn't say no. He was cought and was given a choice to either die or work for them, and the choice he made was obvious. 

He wasn't proud of that. Never was. But at least he could still send money to his sisters, which he hoped were safe and alright. 

"What about you, Miu?" He decided to ask, looking at her. He could almost hear a nervous gulp coming from her, the expression on her face changing suddenly.

"Got forced to, obviously" Iruma told him, scanning another piece of paper.

Miu, since she was a kid, was always pretty smart. Genius, even. She graduated school faster than others and became well known for her inventions and projects. Her main goal was to create something that would help humanity, especially when it came to reducing the use of the dangerous chemicals causing people to mutate. She worked days and nights, dedicated her whole life to it. Her step brother, Kiibo, helped her a lot. He took care of her, made sure she didn't accidentaly overwork herself and was a great assistant. She was sure she wouldn't get as far as she did back then without him. When she was a kid she never really liked him, almost hated him. She couldn't handle the fact that her mother found another husband so quickly so she leg her anger out on his son. Her new father never treated her right, but she soon realised he was the same towards the boy. That's when they started getting closer. 

Perhaps that's why they kidnapped him. Because they knew how much she cared about him. 

Team Danganronpa took her step brother, threatening to hurt him unless she joined them. She never wanted her inventions to cause harm, but she didn't have a choice. She hoped they will let him go as soon as she agreed to work for them, but instead they kept him, using him as a way to keep her in line. They promised he will be free as soon as they win and although she knew how long it will take, she couldn't say no. She couldn't let him get hurt. So all this time she did what they wanted, going against her morals, pretending it's fine, hoping to at least see her step brother once again.

Rantaro's and Iruma's story weren't really that different. Perhaps that's what made them trust eachother so much, even though they had no idea about all the similarities. 

"Holy shit!" She yelled suddenly, dragging Amami closer and showing him something she found.

Kokichi Ouma's file.

"Should we open it?" Said Ceres, unsure. He didn't want to just step into Dice's private life and learn things he didn't want them to know.

"Of fucking course! Look at how thick this shit is! It needs to be something important!" Miu opened it quickly, sitting on the floor next to Amami. 

The first page was a photo of Kokichi and basic informations. Age, date of birth, height, weight, his adress. It didn't seem that suspicious and it made them a little relieved, but that soon stopped when they went to the next page.

"Is this a...journal?" Rantaro observed the pages, confused. They were filled with different dates and hours, all with short notes written under them.

"Why would that bitch need that? It sounds creepy...was she stalking him or something?" Miu shuddered, looking at the next page, similiar to the previous one.

"Look, this one has photos" Amami pointed to the piece of paper. There were small photos attached to the notes, Ouma appearing in every single one of them. They looked like they have been taken out of hiding, which proved their theory about stalking could have been correct. One specific photo cought their eyes.

"Is that...Apollo? Like the hero cunt?" Iruma looked closer, questioning if she was seeing it correctly. On the photo Apollo, the superhero, was holding Kokichi while flying in the air. Ceres showed her another one, this time with Apollo and Kokichi talking. The more they looked, the more photos with both of the appeared.

"The little fucker knows the big fucker? So he lied to us!" Miu gasped, putting the photos down. 

"No, I don't think he lied. Remember when Missshift was explaing Apollo's powers to Ouma? If he knew him, she would know that. He hides nothing from her" Said Rantaro, making the whole situation even more complicated. He took the file again, going through more pages.

"So what, he just forgot? Or does he have like an evil twin? Good twin? Neutral twin? I know, secret twin!" Iruma tried to guess, not caring that the most thing she said made no sense.

"Uh, Miu? I think the forgetting thing might be right...look" He pointed at something, his voice sounding more worried than before. Miu looked at the text in front of her, scanning it carefully, before gasping again.

Tortures. The whole file was full of descriptions of torture, filled with gruesome details and pictures. Shirogane wrote everything. The process, the goal, what she used, how she did it. Not a single information have been forgotten. The two villains felt sick, even they couldn't handle some of the scenes written down on the paper. 

"She...she's so...terrible" Mumbled Miu, staring at one of the pictures in horror. 

"That explains a lot..." Amami closed the file, not able to look at it anymore. "She messed with his memory by mentally abusing him. He doesn't remember what she did and she obviously manipulated him into thinking she's good, that's why he's clinging to her so much"

"Then we need to fucking show this to him!" Iruma yelled out, standing up quickly and trying to run to the door before being grabbed by the other man.

"He won't believe you. We can't just tell him, he will either break down or tell Missshift and you know what will happen to us if she finds out. We need to get him out of her grip first" He explained, letting go of the girl and picking up the papers from the floor, putting them back on their place and locking everything up. 

"So we just have to turn him against that bitch?" She tilted her head, looking at Amami. Minnie crawled out of her bag again, now sitting on her shoulder, rubbing it's metal body on her neck in order to calm her down.

"Pretty much, yes. And since we know he had some connections with Apollo, we could use that" Ceres got up, returning her gaze.

They had a new mission to complete and it would not be easy. 

They had to somehow make Dice remember.


End file.
